


The Shapeshifter

by Watermelons000



Series: Brea “Silver” Shadow [1]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, X-Men - All Media Types
Genre: Asexual Character, Attempt at Humor, Attempted Kidnapping, BAMF Pepper Potts, BAMF Peter Parker, BAMF Tony Stark, Bisexual Peter Parker, Bisexual Tony Stark, Bisexuality, But whatever, Civil War Team Iron Man, Extremis, F/F, F/M, Having big parts, How Do I Tag, Hurt Tony Stark, Hurt/Comfort, I Don't Even Know, If you dont like original characters, Implied/Referenced Rape/Non-con, Implied/Referenced Torture, Italiano | Italian, Kidnapping, M/M, Multi, Not A Fix-It, Not Avengers: Infinity War Part 1 (Movie) Compliant, Pansexual Character, Plot makes no sense, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder - PTSD, Service Dogs, Shapeshifting, Team Dynamics, Team as Family, Tooth-Rotting Fluff, Trust Issues, Tumblr, Vines, dont read, group chats, not team Cap friendly
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-07-11
Updated: 2018-10-21
Packaged: 2019-06-08 23:11:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 14
Words: 38,346
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15254145
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Watermelons000/pseuds/Watermelons000
Summary: Brea returned back to her hideout, an abandoned HYDRA base in the middle of Siberia. She was just about to head in when foreign scents hit her nose. Slipping into the shadows, she prepared herself for the worst. She wasn't expecting what she found.Read or don't read. Purely self indulgent fic.New name!





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fanfic. Please bear with me.  
> Real quick before you get started, Brea is an OFC of mine from a book I am writing. She is a shapeshifter, the last of her kind. There's A/B/O-like dynamics but not completly. Please heed the tags. Also not beta read so all mistakes are mine.

  


Brea stepped through the snow, her paws not making so much as a crunch on the fresh fallen blanket. The Shapeshifter was in her Saltumbra form, a kind of mix between a black wolf and a tiger, with the fluffy charcoal fur, ears, and body of the former, and the pitch black stripes, claws, tail, and size of the latter. The bright silver eyes she was infamous for swept around, ears twitching, always alert for threats. 

She felt unusually high strung, like she was waiting for something bad to happen. If any of her 1500 years in the run taught her anything, it was that she never got down time. From the murder of her first pack, to running from hunters, to the subsequent killing of her second pack, to being caught and put in a sick rendition of a zoo, and finally being sold, trained, and tortured into an assassin, then finding out her entire species had been wiped out, Brea never had a dull moment. And recently it has been suspiciously calm. 

She saw her current hideout on the horizon, in all of it's drab grey cement glory. She happened to find the abandoned HYDRA base smack-dab in the middle of Siberia when she was evading capture by a bunch of hunters. Everybody seemed to want to be the ones to catch Silver, though she couldn't blame them. Silver was well known for her ability to escape alarming situations after all. 

A clang of metal reverberating through the air brought her out of her thoughts. She could smell the faint scent of sweat and blood,  and heard the familiar clash of a fight. She almost sighed in exasperation. Were Shapeshifter hunters really sinking to petty squabbles over her pelt? Why couldn't they just leave her alone?

She smoothly shifted into her human form, a short fifteen years old girl with dirty blonde hair and a lithe runners build. Her leather catsuit she stole from some kidnappers a while back hid an array of various weapons. She was skilled in knives, swords, guns, and almost any household object. Her favorite, however, was archery. Her bow and quiver melted out of her fur, bringing a sense of calm that only those with her experience could feel. In this figure, she looked fairly ordinary, except for her pointed black tuffed ears and tail. And the fact that the average teenager wouldn't have over fifty different kinds of blades on their person.

Taking advantage of a Saltumbra's ability to melt into any shadow and the slowly darkening sky, she crept towards her home. The fighting had stopped, but she heard the mumble conversation.  She paused when four men walked out of the entrance, one in an all black cat costume complete with mask, leading another dressed in what appeared as the American flag.  _Captain America,_ her mind supplied, though what Captain America was doing all the way out here here in the armpit of Siberia, she didn't know. The man he was supporting looked very familiar however, but she couldn't recall who he was. She only knew he was almost as dangerous as her. The last man walked ahead of the group, and she could smell the smugness radiating off of him, even though he was shackled and being escorted by cat dude. They all shambled onward and disappeared into a fancy jet she  hadn't noticed before. She heard the whine of engines starting up, and the aircraft lifted into the sky before flying away.

Brea turned to enter the building herself, when she caught a whiff of another person. This one was not in good shape. They seemed to be surrounded by a lot of blood, and smelled muted, as if they were dying. She thought about simply leaving whoever it was there, but curiosity got the better of her. Silently, she crept through the bare hallways. When she passed the Cryo tanks, she paused. Someone had shot the bodies inside. They probably didn't realize the corpses were already dead. Whatever, it never hurts to  double down.

She quickened her pace when she heard labored breathing. It was raspy, and she could recognize the sound of a punctured lung. As she swept around the corner, she saw a metal suit collapsed on the ground. 

Brea was a trained assassin, and had witnessed several gruesome murders in her time. Heck, she had  _commited_ several gruesome murders in her time, yet her breath caught in her throat when she took in the scene. The paint job looked as though it had been put through the blender, and the suit was severely disfigured. There was a pool of blood underneath it slowly growing larger, reaching a familiar metal shield off to the side.

Circling out of his vision, she took in the state of the hunk of metal. The  limbs had several dents, some which were split open revealing the wires within. The faceplate was torn off, and Brea zoned in on where it was sticking out of the wall. The chest plate was absolutely decimated, a giant crack running through what Brea vaguely remembered being told was an arc reactor.

She approached Iron Man, careful to make her footsteps audible. He tensed as she drew near, an action she couldn't see, but could definitely hear. 

 "Come to finish the job?" He asked bitterly. "I'm completely defenseless, Rogers. Or maybe it's Barnes. Fuck if I know, fuck if I care." He broke down into a wet cough, making Brea since I'm sympathy. He managed to roll over enough to where he was able to spit out the blood that had collected in his lungs.

 "I am neither," she decided to reply. "They left a while ago."

 There was a pause. "You're HYDRA, aren't you.  Fuck off, shithead. The Vision and War Machine will be here soon. Friday got out a distress signal, and before you ask, no, I won't work for you," he spat, venom dripping from every word. 

 "I'm not with them either," Brea stated. "At least, not anymore. I'm here to help you." She moved into his line of sight, at the same time categorizing every injury. 

 "Shit, I'm dead aren't I? Cause you're like fifteen, and you have ears and a fucking tail. We're also in the asscrack of nowhere. I'm dead. Shit, Pep's gonna kill me. Wait I already am dead. She's going to bring me back, then kill me again." Brea was impressed he was still concious, let alone coherent enough to babble like he was. 

 "You're not dead yet," she said. "But you will be if I can't get this suit off. Manual release switches?" She kept her voice emotionless, unwilling to allow him to get a read on her.

 "Armpit, elbow, wrist, kneepit, ankle," Stark said, as if reciting a grocery list. "Careful, the metal's embedded some places."  Brea pressed each point, and heard the latches unlocking. Satisfied she could get him out, she then reached behind her and pulled a rag out of a hidden pocket on her calf.  When he saw the cloth, he narrowed his eyes. 

 "What's that?" he drawled casually, doing a pretty good job covering his suspicion. Brea kept her blank mask on, but inwardly rolled her eyes.

 "Anesthesia. Unless you want me to remove you while you are fully aware?"

 Stark flinched hard. "Yeah, preferably not. You sure it will work? Last time I woke up halfway through open heart surgery." He made the remark flippant, but Brea could hear the fear through it. 

 "I am ninety eight point two percent positive you will remain unconscious," she said.

 "Okay, whatever," he said, trying to hide his tension of the other one point eight percent.

 "Good night, Mr. Stark." Without hesitaion, she pressed the rag over his face  with an invisible wince as the chloroform anesthetic took over, the cloth decreasing his already compromised breathing. When she was sure he was out, she peeled the suit off of him. Multiple lacerations and bruises marred his skin. His face was pale, and a black eye was already forming. His arm was bent at an odd angle, the bone causing an unusual bump through the skin. His pupils were unevenly dilated when she checked. She knew sleeping so soon was extremely dangerous, but she needed him to be placid enough to treat. His chest area specifically looked like it had been shoved through a steam roller. Immediately, she knew her healing abilities would not be enough.

Brea set to work stabilizing the man, trying not to jostle him too much as she moved him to her 'living room', gently placing him on the matress. She ran to one of the labs and got some leaves she had collected last time she was in South America. She mashed them in a bowl, and selected a few herbs, chewing them in her mouth. The herbs joined the concoction, and aided with the healing properties of Shapeshifter saliva, she hoped it would be enough to help Stark stay alive long enough for his comrades to come. She slathered the paste on his skin, careful around the mutilated chest. Once finished, she brought the shield closer to him and set some wood in it.

Brea covered Stark with a thick blanket she had taken from one of her many capturers, and set the logs in the shield on fire. After making sure nothing would immediately cause disaster, she went back outside. Within five minutes she had caught two rabbits. Brea skinned them and set them on the fire to roast.

When the rabbits were done, she boiled some snow and added the flesh to make some sort of stew. She woke up Stark just long enough to force some of the broth down his throat, before he passed out again. Brea scarfed down the rest of the meal as fast as she could, a habit she picked up from being on the run after the murder of her original pack. The skill came in handy, especially during her stay at the Zoo, when she would get her food taken away if she didn't eat quick enough.

Hunger satisfied, Brea noticed Stark was shivering even under the heavy quilt. She shifted back into her main beast form, the large Saltumbra wrapping herself around the half frozen man. He immediately relaxed, but not before a small whimper escaped his lips from being moved. Brea felt her heart twinge, and anger bubble up in the back of her throat. Whatever Tony Stark had done to encourage any anger from Captain America, there was no way it was deserving of such a beating. 

She watched over him for hours through the night, always following the slightest noise. He had a nightmare at one point in time, the movement causing his pain to flare up. The pain only pushed him further into a panic attack, but Brea was patient. She had had her fair share of panic attacks, they weren't fun. She allowed him to thread his finger through her fur, and she licked his hair flat until he settled back down again.

 It wasn't until early morning and seven nightmares later that his friends arrived. Instead of War machine, however, it was a slim armour, probably meant for a female. They looked around for her briefly but Brea was excellent at staying out of sight. ' _Saltumbra means Shadowleaper, little one. One with the shadows, that's what you are.' 'Really mama?' 'Of course, my pup. You are special.'_ They gave the search quickly, more focused on getting Stark medical help. They collected the armor and shield, and placed the poor man on a stretcher. Before they left, the one called Vision stopped in the doorway.

 "Whoever you are," he said, seemingly confident she would hear him. " I would like to thank you for your kind deeds. If you ever require assistance, I shall be there. "

With that, he and the other took off into the dawn, unaware of the girl watching them with a smile.

 


	2. Chapter Two

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It's been a year since that fateful day in Siberia. A year of stress, pain, and paperwork. Tony is proud of his new family and all they had accomplished within those twelve months. It's finally quieting down. And then he sees a familiar face.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm not very proud of this chapter, but I wanted to post it before I backed out.

It had been a year since that fateful day in Siberia. A year of stress, pain, and paperwork. As Tony looked around the common room at his family, he finally felt... _happy._

 After rescuing him from the HYDRA base, Vision and Pepper loaded him on the quinjet and rushed him back to the compound where Dr. Cho was waiting with the cradle all ready. After seeing the sorry state his body was in, she concluded that her invention would not be enough. Against Pepper's wishes, Tony injected himself with his modified version of Extremis, fixed so that he wouldn't go boom. Unfortunately, without the constant of feeding energy off itself, they had to implant a new battery. Once again, Tony had an arc reactor. 

Because Tony had to take a higher concentration of Extremis than Pepper, there were some unforseen side effects. Tony could now access the internet in his head, and had developed a sense of technopathy. He almost cried when he felt Friday, Vision, and the bots' codes, their worry and love that was directed towards him. He spent ten hours that day in his lab, enjoying his children's presence.

A month after the surgery, someone anonymously released several of now former General Ross' illegal activities. Friday had apparently felt particularly vengeful that day, as he was in a meeting at the Pentagon when the leak occurred. Rhodey had laughed so hard at the security footage, he fell out of his wheelchair. Tony felt a twinge of guilt, but his honey bear shut it down quickly by reminding Tony of his works on the prosthetic braces.

The Spider-child started coming around the compound more often, spending lab time with Tony. It wasn't until Tony was picking up random textbooks and sweatshirts that he realized he had unintentionally adopted a kid. Two panic attacks and a glass of water later (he had stopped drinking), Tony contacted the kid's hot aunt, and offered them a place to stay at the compound. They had agreed after some convincing. One fateful afternoon, Tony had gotten a phone call from a panicking Peter, telling him Aunt May was in a car crash and was now in critical condition at the hospital. After a long talk, Extremis once again came in handy, and Aunt May was now an enhanced individual.  She ended up signing the revised Sokovia Accords, but made it clear she would not be placed on active duty. Everyone was completely okay with that.

Three months post-surgery, a routine Skype call with Harley Keener ended in Tony offering him a place to stay.  His mother had fallen ill with cancer, and his grandparents didn't want both him and his sister. Harley and Peter got on like a house on fire, scaring the shit out of Rhodey. Luckily, Tony now had two very scary women in his life who were able to keep the two teens out of trouble.

Tony was in the lab one day, trying to figure out if he could potentially use nanites to make up the suit, when a not so dead Agent Coulson arrived at his front door. Agent said Ross had found the Barton brood, and was trying to capture them to scare Barton  into revealing his location (Wakanda. It only took Tony five minutes to hack their country and discover the rogues. He let them be, because they were being watched and kept out of trouble. He didn't care for them anymore anyway.) Tony stocked up the quinjet and flew to the farm, about getting his head shot off by Mrs. Barton in the process. They managed to grab the kid's go-bags and leave without a moment to spare. They watched a blazing fire over take the farm as they flew away. Laura, she insisted he call her that, accepted his invitation to live at the compound. Tony instantly regretted it when she met Pepper and May. 

Kamala actually came to Tony. Her parents kicked her out when they found out she had powers, thinking she was a mutant. Tony let her in and contacted Charles Xavier, but by then the young girl had made an impression. He adopted her two weeks later. Happy was getting exhausted by all of the kids he had to drive to school, even though they all went to Midtown High.

Rhodes was the one to introduce Tony to Carol Danvers. Captain Marvel had been found floating around just out of orbit, and was brought in by NASA. Tony already had ten kids (counting the bots), an Android, and six other adults, he figured what's one more? Carol and Rhodey eventually started dating, and the kids were already planning their wedding.

Matt Murdock was brought to the compound by one Peter Parker. The blind lawyer by day,  Devil of Hell's Kitchen by night, didn't stay but promised to keep in touch. Through him, Tony found himself in possession of one Jessica Jones. Tony wondered why all of the women in his life were scary.

Hope van Dyne just added to that conclusion when she very loudly declared herself a separate person from her father.

Stephen Strange was a new experience. When they met, Tony was excited that he now has an awesome facial hair bro who could match him word for word in snark. They hung out a lot, and Stephen helped Tony get over his fear of magic by explaining it as scientifically as he could. In return, Tony made some braces for Stephen's hands to help with the tremors. They danced around each other for so long, that even Wong was fed up with the pining. He shoved them through a portal to France, and told them to get over themselves and date already. That was one of the best days of Tony's life. 

Now he was here, watching his family interact, feeling an overwhelming sense of belonging. There were no more abrupt conversation stops when he walked into a room, no more cold shoulders or passive aggressive voices, just love, as cheesy as it sounded. 

Rhodey and Carol were curled up on the loveseat together, drinking hot chocolate to chase away the cold of winter. Pepper, May, Hope, Laura, and surprisingly Jessica had taken over the couch, drinking wine and doing each other's hair and nails. They had somehow roped Vision into their group and we giving him a complete set of acrylics. The children were all curled up together on the floor with Levi the cloak, in a nest of blankets and pillows, staring intently at the TV which was playing Mission Impossible.

Tony startled when he felt a hand sneak around his waist. He relaxed into his boyfriend with a sign of contentment. Stephen nuzzled his neck and Tony just took a moment to breathe. The Accords were finally at a pausing point, Ross was in prison, his family was safe, and there were no Super villains in the process of blowing up New York.  He turned around and gave Stephen a kiss, when the kids started belting out the Mission Impossible theme song in line with the movie. Stephen chuckled and rested his forehead on Tony's. 

 "Are you okay?" He asked, blue eyes searching Tony's face.

 "Actually, you know what, I think I am," Tony replied. 

 "Good," Stephen said, and rested his head on top of the mop of brown hair. Tony was once again contemplating their height difference when the X-Files jingle began blaring over the speakers. 

 "Really, you changed the Assemble alarm to  _that?_ " He turned towards the kids. Peter smiled at him sheepishly.

 "Sorry, dad."

 "No you're not," Tony reprimanded.

 "No, I'm not," Peter agreed with a grin. "At least it's better than Harley's  _Barbie Girl_."

 Tony rolled his eyes. "What's the situation, Fri?" 

 "I'm not quite sure. It seems to be a group of people trying to kidnap a young girl. You could take the young'ins if you wanted. It doesn't seem to serious."

 " _Allora,_ Cooper, Harley, Lila, you got coms. Kamala, Peter, you're with me and Stephen. Let's go." His new nanite armour reached out of the arc reactor and wrapped around his body. Stephen, Kamala, and Peter ran off to get  their uniforms. Levi waited patiently by Tony's side.

Within minutes, his little team was back in the common room and they left through a portal, the others wishing good luck. 

 "The group should be to your right," Harley said over the coms. "Seven large dudes in camo chasing after this  blond chick in a black leather suit."

 "Any idea what they want with her?" Kamala asked.

 "They're saying something about how she would cost more alive, but just her pelt would be enough to set them up for life," Cooper said, sounding sickened. 

 Stephen and Tony took off into the sky, while Peter webbed the top of a building and pulled himself up. They scanned around for their targets when Stephen suddenly barked out a laugh. Through the coms they heard Harley losing it as well.

 "Wait, what happened?" Tony asked. 

 "She-she," Harley stuttered. "She disappeared into an apartment building and they surrounded her and yelled at her to come out. Then  she popped her head out of the window and yelled 'Fuck off, you fucking pancakes!' and slammed the window shut and now they look so offended!" He howled with laughter again. 

 "Holy shit!" Peter yelled. "Look!" They all turned to where he was pointing and the girl  had appeared on top of the roof. Glancing around she took in all of the people surrounding her and took a flying leap off the edge. Her spine twisted unnaturally and she landed the twenty stories to the ground unharmed. 

 "What the fuck!" Tony shouted. Suddenly, all seven men were upon her, but she didn't seem scared. In fact, she looked determined. There was a glint of metal and two of the men were on the ground, blades sticking out of their necks. The girl had two more knives in her hands, but Tony couldn't tell where they came from. She spun around in a deadly arc and two more bodies hit the ground.

Kamala whistled. "Dang, think she'll teach me how she does that?"

The last three hunters were obviously better trained than their buddies because they too integrated weapons. The teenager, she was a teenager Tony could see that now, engaged them in what looked like a deadly dance, holding her own against the three stronger and larger men. The Avengers were silent in awe as she took down another. Finally one got in a lucky but that cut through the suit and into her arm, but she didn't even flinch. The man fell in a heap, and his comrade seemed to notice he was out matched. Instead of retreating, however, the man attacked more viciously. The girl smiled, teeth seeming a little sharper than average, and slit his throat.

She glanced at the Avengers and took off running, disappearing into the shadow of a building. Tony saw a flash of red follow her and turned to Stephen, who had set down on the roof of an apartment complex. 

 "Levi will track her," he said an Tony nodded.

 "What the hell was that?" Harley shouted into the com microphone. 

 "I don't know, man, " Peter replied.  "That was freaky."

 "We need to go find her," Kamala pointed out. 

 " No, " Tony said. "You will go back to the compound. She is too dangerous for you." 

 The two teens looked like they were about to argue, but then seemed to think better of it. They nodded and entered into a portal Stephen had opened for them. Before it closed, Tony noticed Harley, Cooper, and Lila in the background, and almost immediately heard chatter through the communication lines.

He signed and landed by his boyfriend, who wrapped his arms around him. Carefully, Tony took off, following the GPS dot that represented Levi's location. They wove around buildings and skyscrapers, until the came upon the dead ended alley the Cloak lead them to. 

The piece of fabric seemed to be staring at something in the corner, but Tony's sensors didn't pick anything up. He held out a hand,  repulsor light like a flashlight. The light ate away at the shadow, revealing a dark furred creature the size of a large jungle cat. The beast's size was not what captures his attention, however. It's practically glowing silver eyes watched him distrustfully. A memory flew to the front of his mind.

 "I know her," he said over a private line. "From Siberia. She saved me." Tony gauged Stephen's reaction, but he evidentally had seen weirder. "Apparently I didn't hallucinate a Shapeshifter." He noticed the cut around the front leg was matted with blood, a lot more than there should be. 

 Tony made a split second decision and opened the faceplate up. He squatted down a respectful distance from the girl, and began softly speaking. "Hey. I'm Tony Stark. You saved me in that HYDRA base. Do you remember?" 

The beast-girl thing just stared at him, blank eyes not giving him any indication she heard him. Her body was wound tight but completely still, like a predator waiting for its prey to fall into it's trap. He reached out slowly to pet her, but she growled and bared her sharp teeth. 

 "Okay, no touchy, got it." He shifted around slowly to Stephen. " Love, could you get the-" and that was when the girl struck. She leapt over Tony, completely clearing his armour. Luckily, Levi and Strange were quick to react. The sorcerer lashed out his hands and Eldritch ropes flung out like whips, wrapping around her limbs and snout. Levi rushed to her before she could fall and wrapped her in a tight cocoon. She thrashed, snarled, and snapped, but ultimately was rendered immobile. Tony stood up and carefully made his way over. 

 "We need to get her back to the compound," he said. "That way, we can treat her and maybe find out what those men wanted from her. Stephen nodded, and began moving his hands in a complicated gesture that Tony hadn't seen before. 

Catching his quizzical look, Stephen replied, "A sleeping spell. It will put her out for six hours so we can help her without her hurting herself. He pushed the knot of energy towards the teenager, and she immediately went slack in the Cloak's hold. Then he opened a portal to the medbay, and the alley was empty once more.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Constructive criticism is very much encouraged. Hit me up on Tumblr, same username.  
>  *Allora, is Italian for 'so' or 'alrighty'


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Silver meets some of the pack.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Heyyy, two chapters in one day! Tbh, I was just really bored, and this things not pre written or anything so I just post as I go along. Side note, just found out I can't use a certain calculator for my test tomorrow, which I am completely unprepared for. I think I might just go die alone in a hole tonight.  
> TW: implied rape/non-con but not explicit.

Brea knew she wasn't were she should be immediately after she woke up. The scents and lighting were drastically different from the empty apartment she broke into. Brea forced her breathing and heart rate to slow down, giving the illusion of unconsciousness. She was vaguely aware of another being in the room with her. Realizing she was still in her Saltumbra form, she casually rolled over and stilled again. No restraints. Either these people were really dumb, or really good. 

Brea thought back to the alley. She recognized Iron Man, who wouldn't, but she didn't know whose side he was on. True, she did save him, but she had done that to others before and go on to regret it. She had also just killed seven men in broad daylight. She didn't feel any remorse for her actions. The stupid hunters had it coming. 

Deciding that she couldn't get anymore information pretending to be asleep, Brea opened her eyes and gracefully clambering to her feet. She was in a huge room that was divided into two by a large window. Her side was fully furnished, a bed with a nightstand in the corner, a table in the middle, a tv and couch off to the side, and the door way to a bathroom on the opposite corner of the sleeping area. Brea noted that everything was reinforced though. The table was bolted to the floor, the bed attached to the wall. Once she took it all in she turned to the other side of the glass wall. It was bare, only a door she presumed led to the outside directly in the middle of the wall. The person watching her (fuck, he was male) was large and burly, a grumpy expression clinging to his face. 

 "Friday," he said, not taking his eyes off her. "Alert the boss that his guest is awake."

 Brea was very proud to say that she didn't flinch when a female voice with an Irish accent said from the ceiling, "Of course, Mr. Hogan."

 Brea looked around again with the sickening realization that this place was exactly like the Zoo. No restraints, no ways of escape, two way mirror for visitors. The only difference was the quality of the furnishings, but Brea suspected that is was because her new "master" was a billionaire. She quickly tried to shift into her human form, only to find out that her catsuit was blocked. She made it into a fifteen year old, but she wore a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. The only thing keeping her from panicking was that she could feel the suit just underneath her skin. She tried another shift, but was once again blocked. The only three she could focus on were her five year old child form, the fifteen year old sans weapons, and the Saltumbra. She vaguely wondered how Tony Stark had gotten his hands on the Zoo's technology, then vanished the thought. He was a genius after all. 

The similarities only pushed her further into panic mode. Her  fight or flight response kicked in and without being able to do either she decided on hide. If she had done this during her assassin training she would have been punished, but this was a Zoo. As long as you are seen by guests, you could do whatever you want. 

Brea transformed into her Saltumbra, where she had some semblance of weapons, and squeezed herself underneath the bed. Not a moment later did the door on the other side fly open with a bang, and Iron Man himself came in, dressed sharply in a nice Armani suit. Behind him floated in a second man, the magician who helped with her capture. He was dressed in traditional brown robes, with a multi-finger ring on one hand. His cloak fluttered around him, proving what Brea already knew: it was sentient.

Even though they were separated by what was probably reinforced bullet and supersoldier proof glass, Brea still pressed herself deeper against the wall away from the three males. Stark paused when he saw the room and turned to Hogan. 

 "Where'd she go?" He asked, frowning. 

 "Under the bed," Hogan said nodding towards her location. "She woke up and freaked out when she did her body swap thing." 

Stark turned to the sorcerer. "I thought you said you dampened her powers."

 "I did." The man shrugged. "She can't morph into anything else besides her two human forms and whatever beast is her main. She also can't change her outfit into something dangerous. I can't and won't completely shut off her abilities. Being fully separated from one's magic is one of the worst things to happen to a user."

Stark nodded thoughtfully. "Can you let me in there? So I can show her I'm not a threat?" Brea began lowly growling, and cut herself off. Her last owners never came in the room with her. She felt herself become curious towards the out of character display.

 "Only if I join you. We don't know what kind of hand to hand combat training she has, and she is obviously deadly enough in her beast skin." He watched her, considering.

 "Happy, you can go. Have fun tonight, yeah?" Stark said without looking away from Brea. He saved his hand at the door.

 "Thanks boss," Hogan snorted. "See you tomorrow. " He left quickly, not waiting for a reply.

 "Stephen, if you will."

The magician nodded, and lifted his hands, moving them in a circle. A fiery portal opened in the glass, making a sort of door way. The two men stepped through, and the 'door' quickly shut behind them. Brea picked up her growling again, slightly showing off her fangs. The duo didn't smell malicious, but her handlers and 'visitors' rarely did. She wished she could trust them, but ultimately fear from experience was a great motivator.

Stephen grabbed Stark's shoulder, holding him back from advancing towards her.

"Hello," he said, rumbling baritone of a voice surprisingly soft. "I am Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. I don't think you've told us your name."  _'You're such a pretty little thing. What's your name, sweetcheeks?' 'Silver.' 'Well Silver, let's see if I can get you to scream **my**_   _name.'_

Brea shuttered. The movement was invisible to the naked eye, a side effect of HYDRA's training. Even if you are compromised, never let them see your weaknesses. She felt the instinct to lash out, but if she killed them she wouldn't have any way out, and really would be trapped. She also already liked them, her stupid anxiety was just getting the better of her.

Stark sat down on the ground prompting Strange to do the same. "We have some food if you want it," the shorter said. Brea shook her head as he pulled out a Tupperware container from behind his back. "Okay then. I'll just put it one the table." He did as he said, but Brea noticed he took the opportunity to sit closer to her. She raised her hackles, a subtle warning to stay away.

Stark looked confused, but respected her wishes. He flopped back with a dramatic sigh. Brea cocked her head at his antics. 

 "So bored," he complained.

 Strange chuckled. "I thought you wanted some down time." 

 "That was this morning," he drawled. "This is now." Brea inched closer, and realized that these two were mates. Their scent wasn't strong, but it was kind of obvious if you knew what to look for. She realized with startling clarity that they were the pack leader, and leader's mate. She drew back after that particular observation, remembering the last pack leader she met.

The cloak, which Brea had almost forgotten about, unexpectedly left its master and swooped in front of the bed, blocking Brea's view of the men and vice versa. It made exaggerated gestures that she couldn't read, but evidently Strange got the message. He stood up abruptly, hauling Stark to his feet. 

 "Let's go. We need to chat."

 The doorway portal opened and shut and the cloak dragged both men out the door. Brea was stunned into immobility by the fast exit, and felt abruptly very much alone. She cursed herself and her fear for ruining her chance at salvation, and laid down with her head on her paws.

**********

Levi took off as soon as they were out of the room. Stephen sighed and rubbed the bridge of his nose. 

 "Well that could have gone better," Tony pointed out.

 "No kidding," Stephen replied. He leaned back against the wall, tilting his head up towards the ceiling. 

 "Any idea why she acted the way she did?" Tony asked, crossing his arms.

 "I have a hypothesis, but I'm hoping it's wrong," Stephen said bitterly. He shook his head. "I'm really hoping it's wrong." Tony opened his mouth to retort, but was cut off by Hope coming down the hall.

 "Stephen! Your cape is molesting me again!" She whined, putting her hands on her hips. 

 Stephen felt his lips twitch up into a smile. "It's a Cloak, not a cape, and it's name is Levi."

 "Fine," Hope snapped. "Stephen,  _Levi_ is molesting me again and if it doesn't stop I'm going to set it on fire and shove it through the meat grinder."

 "We have a meat grinder?" Tony wondered .

 "Evidently," Stephen said dryly. "I have told you, the Cloak is a fickle thing. I don't control it, I am merely it's partner."

Hope turned and  pointed her finger at the sentient fabric. "I will run you through the meat grinder, drown you in bleach, set you on fire, and dance on your grave."

Levi was apparently done with the interlude and Hope's threats, and wrapped itself around her shoulders. It carried her over to the door and sat her down in front of it, very clearly wanting her to go inside. 

At Hope's questioning glance, Tony shrugged. She pushed the door open and entered the room, Stephen and Tony following her like lost puppies. When Hope stopped in front of the glass, she gasped softly. The Shapeshifter has come out from her hiding spot and was sitting in the middle of the room, silver eyes watching Hope with interest. Her gaze took on a distrustful edge when she saw the two behind Hope, but she remained in place. 

 "Stephen, let me in." Stephen startled from where he was studying the young girl when Hope spoke. He quickly opened a portal and allowed the Wasp inside. The huge beast looked very much like a friendly dog as she accompanied Hope to the couch. Hope sat down and the creature jumped up next to her, putting her head in her lap. Hope laughed and scratched the overgrown house cat behind the ears. Stephen looked at Tony, who seemed awestruck. 

 "The hell...?" He muttered. Stephen moved closer to his boyfriend, theory confirmed. "How has Hope already done more than we did, in half the time?"

 "What is the main difference between us and Hope, my love?" Stephen asked gently. 

 "Hope doesn't have awesome facial hair," Tony answered immediately.

 "No, Hope's a female," Stephen corrected.

 "What does being male have to do with anything?" Stephen waited patiently for his boyfriend to fill in the missing pieces. "Aw, shit."

 "Very eloquently summed up," Stephen snarked. 

 "Shut up, babe. So what do we do?" 

 "We try to help her," Stephen said softly. "We try to give her a family." They turned back to the two women. Hope had somehow gotten the girl to return to her human form, and the younger was eating some of the food Tony had brought. They seemed to be in deep conversation, and Hope laughed again, causing the girl to give a shy smile.

As Stephen watched them interact, he vowed to never let this kid get hurt again. His own ferocity took him by surprise, he had never felt this way towards anyone before, even Tony's brood.  _Maybe,_ he thought.  _Maybe it's because she reminds me of me._

Stephen glanced at his significant other out of the corner of his eye. Then he smiled, quietly basking in the light of his new found revelation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading! Next time: Brea meets the rest of the Avengers. 
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brea meets the New Avengers, and they learn a little bit about her past.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> It's time to get the ball rollin' This entire chapter is from Hope's point of view, because I loved the way her character was portrayed in Ant-Man.

A month went by before Silver left the room. 

The first few days after her capture were spent alone with Hope, building up the beginnings of a foundation of trust. At least, after Hope realized that Silver had talked about everything and nothing. She was terrifyingly good at avoiding a topic she didn't want to talk about, skills rivaling Jessica's. Hope ended up coming in the third day with a checklist of conversations she wanted to have, and refused to talk about anything not on the list. Was it kind of petty? Yeah. Did it get the job done? Hell yeah.

Even with the list, Hope still wasn't able too get much information out of her. Stephen shared what little he knew, and Hope felt sickened at how many times it must have happened for Silver to develop such a wariness of men. After hearing that little gem, Hope kicked Tony and Stephen out of even the observation room. She wanted to make as much progress as she could.

After about a week, Silver seemed to be acting a little weird. It wasn't very noticeable, more like a feeling in the back of your mind. Hope went through the security tapes and, with Friday's help, found out two things. The first was that Silver kept unusual sleeping hours. She would pass out for about an hour before jolting awake, and then remain conscious for at least twice the time. Friday admitted that the girl would have a slightly elevated heart rate, but nothing out of the ordinary. It made Hope wonder how long she had been living with nightmares, and where she had been when she had them, that she learned to control any tell-tale signs.

The second observation Hope made, was that Silver was skirting around her just a little more than usual. This prompted Hope to take a look back on all of their meetings. She watched the tapes of how Silver acted before she got there and after she got there, and recognized something she had seen Tony do all to many times. She watched as what she thought was a playful teenager strip off and put on that mask like it was as easy as breathing. Hope sucked in a breath and let it whistle out through her teeth. This was going to be harder than she thought.

Towards the end of week two, Silver made an offhand comment that shocked Hope speechless. They had been sitting at the table, eating some sort of meatloaf May had made, when she spoke up.

 "As much as I enjoy your company, I haven't seen Master or anyone else yet."

 "What?" Hope asked, startled. "What master?"

 Silver tried to hide a flinch, but it was still there, if barely visible. "You know, my owner? They usually want me to call them 'master'." 

 Hope paled, losing her appetite quickly. "You don't have an owner," she assured. "And we're certainly not your 'masters'." 

The girl cocked her head, seemingly confused. "Why am I here, then? I'm no more than an exotic pet." Hope felt nauseous at the matter of fact tone used.

 "No. No you're not. We have you here to help you," she implored.

 Silver seemed to consider that. "I...don't understand," she admitted. "I'm dangerous, feral. A wild animal that can't be tamed, so I have to be locked up or controlled. I have killed hundreds, you saw me murder those men."

Hope shook her head stubbornly. "You're no more dangerous than anyone else in the building. And with those men? It looked like self defense to me. They were trying to take you down, not caring if it was dead or alive. You did what you had to do to survive." There was a pause.

 "I used to work for HYDRA." Silver smiled bitterly. "I was an assassin, I tortured innocent people for them. I could take your life before you even registered I moved."

 "But you won't. I trust you."

 "Why?" She asked angrily. "I'm not safe to be around! Why would you have any reason to trust me?" 

 Hope hummed. "Would you still?"

 Silver spluttered. "Would I still what?"

 "Would you still willingly go to HYDRA and work with them?"

 "That's beside the point," Silver said, crossing her arms.

 "No, it's really not." Hope pointed her finger at the girl in a scolding motion. "Your deflecting just proves to me that you were forced into compliance by those Nazis. I trust that you aren't actually as bad as you say you are." Silence lapsed over the two as both took in everything said. 

 "I want you to meet someone. Don't worry," Hope said when it looked like Silver was about to argue. "They're all girls." Silver looked surprised that Hope had noticed, which made her heart break just a little more. "Friday, can you ask Pepper, May, Carol, Jess, and Kamala to come here?"

 "Yes ma'am, Mrs. Van Dyne." Silver looked up at the ceiling with interest. 

 "I almost forgot. Silver, Friday is one of Tony's AIs. Friday, I trust you know Silver?"

 "I do. May I say it is finally nice to meet you Ms. Silver." Friday had a slight note of affection in her voice. Hope herself was just getting used to how human she sounded.

 "My name's not actually Silver," the teen said with a shy smile. "It's Brea." 

Hope grinned. Finally they were getting somewhere. "Of course, Brea." Brea matched her expression, albeit somewhat reluctantly. A click came from the other side of the glass, and five women strode in.

Pepper and Carol had matching expressions, their friendly smiles inviting. May looked like a fun aunt (probably because she was), with a mischievous glint in her eyes. Jessica had her signature scowl on, but her eyes were soft as they fell on the Shapeshifter. Kamala's whole face was lit up, the physical embodiment of happiness. Sadly, Laura was absent for a few weeks working out a divorce packet with her lawyers and had taken the kids with her, so Brea couldn't meet them just yet.

Hope glanced at Brea, who was watching each one of the group, calculating. She apparently didn't find what she was looking for, as she relaxed and gave a small wave. 

 "Guys, this is Brea," Hope said taking over the introductions. "Brea, this is Carol Danvers, Pepper Potts, May Parker, Jessica Jones, and Kamala Khan." 

 "Hi," Brea murmured. 

Kamala ran up to the glass. "Oh my gosh, thank God, I won't be the only girl anymore. Are you really a Shapeshifter? I saw you fight, could you teach me? The boys, my adopted brothers, are so annoying and it would be great to have another chick in my side!"

The others tensed when Kam mentioned the boys, but Brea only blinked and nodded. "I don't know. It would be extremely difficult and very dangerous."

Kamala bounced on her toes. "I don't care, I am hear to learn, Jedi Master."

Brea apparently knew Star Wars, as she quipped back, "Maybe later, young padawan."

Hope looked to the other women, who were watching the exchange with varying expressions of amusement. A thought struck her. "How will you get in here? I usually have Stephen let me in."

 Jess smirked. "I may or may not have pick-pocketed Strange." She lazily waved her hand in front of herself, a bulky ring enveloping three of her fingers.

 Pepper looked appalled. "Jessica!"

 "Relax, I know how to use it and everything. Wong likes me." She winked and moved her hands in a circular motion, opening up a space in the glass. 

 "That still doesn't make it right," Pepper  admonished as she stepped through. Carol cleared her throat thoughtfully. 

 "How'd you get by the Cloak?" 

 "Are you kidding? Levi's the one who stole it," May snorted.

 Hope raised her hand to put on Brea's shoulder when she noticed the latter beginning to get a little skittish. Brea smoothly evaded the motion, not even looking at its creator. Hope vaguely remembered Tony stating something about 'no touchy touchy' and silently cursed her ignorance.

Luckily, the others seemed to remember the the unspoken rule, keeping their distance until Brea approached them. Even Kamala settled down as soon as she set foot inside the room. There was a comfortable silence as Brea brought her emotions back under control, the wide-eyed, ready-to-bolt look replaced by one of genuine fascination.

 "You are not scared?" She inquired. 

 "No, why would we be?" May denied kindly.

 Brea opened her mouth to respond, but Jessica beat her to it. "We heard your 'I'm an evil being that needs to be put down' rant. It's not anything we haven't thought about ourselves before. We've all killed people, except maybe May. You're not special, fluffy."

Brea tilted her head in puzzlement. Hope realized that she had done that a lot, probably some deep animal instinct she didn't  know about. Or maybe she did, just didn't care. Hope thought it made her looked like a flustered puppy, but she kept her observations to herself.

 "How about we watch a movie?" Pepper suggested, breaking the awkward quiet that blanketed the room.

 "Which one?" Carol asked, relief evident in her voice. 

 "How about 'A Dog's Purpose'?" Kamala suggested. 

 "I have not seen that one," Brea said with a shrug. 

 "We need tissues," Jess announced. "You're going to cry."

 

They all ended up bawling their eyes out, even the ever emotionless Jessica Jones. They decided to watch a happier movie, May choosing Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them. It was oddly fitting. The group ended up staying late into the night, only stopping when Friday's 'Everyone in Bed by Asscrack of Dawn' protocol kicked them out. Hope decided as she climbed into bed that hopefully soon she would be able to get Brea comfortable enough to leave the room. Until then, she would work on building up trust with the rest of the gang, letting the teen know they had her back.

 

The next two weeks were a whirlwind of activity. Brea bonded with the Chicks™ (Harley's name for the women) and they began seeing more and more of her actual personality. She was a sarcastic little shit, and got on well with all of them.

Pepper and Brea chatted at length about using body posture to show dominance, a trait Pep had gotten down years ago. The two teens trained together, Brea helping Kamala master some particularly impressive maneuvers to take down Peter and Harley with. Carol surprisingly found common ground with the topic of hunting, debating the pros and cons of different rifles and bows. Jessica just shared Brea's dark sense of humor and similar life experiences, although Hope was positive they were plotting something. Probably global domination. Or extinction. One could never tell with Jess.

There came a point where Hope brought up meeting Tony and Stephen again, expecting Brea to change the subject. To her surprise, she agreed. Slowly, the two men were introduced, first only staying on the opposite side of the glass wall, while Brea was surrounded by her new friends. Little by little, they managed to be in the same room without any problems. Then Hope slowly removed each female one by one, until Brea could comfortably sit next to the couple on the couch alone.

Once again, Hope was dumbstruck by Brea's resilience. She was in her Saltumbra form, curled up in between Stephen and Tony. Levi was draped over the back of the couch, petting the fur along her shoulder blades. Tony's head was tilted back, and he was snoring softly, while Stephen drooled on the Cloak. Even though Brea was awake, she was relaxed, and Hope was ecstatic with progress. The Shifter might not ever be comfortable enough to fall asleep in the company of someone else, but Hope decided that she earned herself that quirk. And Lord knows the Avengers were some quirky people. Hope waved gently when Brea's head turned towards her. She softly closed the door and smiled. Yeah, this was going to work out just fine.

*****

 

The day came when Brea actually wanted to meet the rest of the team. Her argument to Stephen, who somehow became like a coddling father figure to the girl, was that she was already buddies half of the members and practically knew everyone else from the stories by the afore mentioned people. 

Reluctantly, Stephen agreed and Hope had to suppress a teasing remark. Now was not the time for that. Tony had also been worrying, just in his own way. He has hacked everything from SHIELDRA, to the Pentagon, to try to find out any information on Brea's past. After ten days, he had to admit defeat. He discovered only two things, that Brea's HYDRA name was the Silver Shadow, and that she had over two hundred killings attributed to that name.

Before the introductions, Stephen lifted the magical mental block on Brea's shifting, and the three of them were  subjected to  an hour of watching Brea shift into some of her forms. Hope was pretty sure she saw a dragon at one point in time, but she couldn't be sure because Brea changed too quickly. 

The enthusiasm was infectious, and pretty soon they all had sore cheeks from smiling. The good mood lasted even when they left the room. Brea had her leather cat suit on as she trailed down the hall behind them. She also somehow had the ears and the tail from the Saltumbra. Catching Hope's inquisitive look, she briefly explained.

"I can do a partial shift and mix two of my forms. I didn't when I had the mental suppressant, mainly because I couldn't. I'm most comfortable with this build." She looked nervous that Hope would scold her or try to make her change back.

Hope simply accepted the reasoning whole heartedly, when they rounded the corner to the common room.  The entire space was taken up by Avengers. 

 "Introduction time," Tony said with flourish , ever the showman. Everyone, this is Brea. Brea, you already know these people, " he waved his hand at Carol and her group. "This is Laura Bishop, and her kids Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel." They  murmured hellos, and Laura gave her a motherly smile. 

 "Over here we have Wong, like Beyonce, Matt Murdock, James "Rhodey" Rhodes, and Vision." The four nodded their heads. Brea focused on Matt.

 "You're Daredevil," she said.

 Matt's face contorted in surprise, and then he nodded. "Devil of Hell's Kitchen, nice to meet you." 

 "Nice to meet you too," she replied. Hope was overjoyed that Brea seemed to be doing just fine with all of the new people. She caught her eye, and grinned. 

 "Finally, last but not least, these are  two of my kids Peter Parker and Harley Keener." Tony clapped his hands. "Happy was unable to make it today, but you'll see him soon."

 Peter apparently took this as his cue as he stepped forward with his hand outstretched. "I'm Spider-Man."

Hope tensed, but Brea took his hand and shook it graciously. "Silver Shadow, but you can call me Brea."

 Harley was watching her with interest in his gaze. "Are those real?" He asked pointing at her ears and tail. "Cause if that's tech, I want in."

 Brea laughed, a musical sound almost similar to a mocking bird's song. "Naw, they're all natural biology."

 "Wait," Cooper spoke up. "So you really are a Shapeshifter? I thought Kam was just pulling our legs."

Kamala pouted. "I take offense to that." The adults were watching the conversation pan out with amusement.

 "That's okay," Brea said, patting the girl's shoulder. "Use underestimation to your advantage." Cooper looked scared at that ominous implication. He glared at the girls, who glared right back. After a few tense moments, he looked away.

 "Holy shit, that really does work," Kam said, astonished. 

 "Language,"  May chided. "And what does?"

"Something Brea and I have been working on. A non-physical act to get the boys to back off, considering there's three of them and there used to be two of us girls, one of which is ten," she disclosed. 

 "And that is..?" Matt asked somewhat hesitantly. 

 "Oh yeah, I keep forgetting you guys don't know about Shapeshifters," Brea said apologetically. "You have such a healthy pack, and all."

 "Pack?" Laura asked. 

 "Family," Brea amended. "We call them packs."

 "I would like to further discuss these 'packs'," Wong said, and the others nodded in agreement.

The teen hesitated, then made a 'screw it' motion and forged onward. "Alright, you might want to get comfortable, this is going to take a while."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I may make a chapter of Tony and Stephen gaining Brea's trust if I get enough requests. I just felt a little bit of writers block with them, so I kind of skimmed through.
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000,  
> Side note: Fantastic Beasts is my all time favorite movie. I love Newt's character so much.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brea teaches the team about packs, and the kids show her YouTube.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I realize that Brea may have been weirdly placid in trusting the other avengers, but there's a reason for that.

The pack all migrated to the living room and took over the couches. Brea herself sat on the floor in front of the TV, that way she could see everyone and no one could sneak up behind her. She trusted Hope, Tony, Stephen, and the others enough not to freak out at meeting so many people, but old habits die hard.

Once everyone was settled she cleared her throat and opened her mouth. She then promptly closed it. She didn't know how to word her explanation.

 "Why don't you start with the very basics," Tony suggested, obviously sensing her inner turmoil.

 "Right. Ok. So in every group of people there's a hierarchy. This includes all species, not just Shapeshifters. Anyway, there are two forms of this...order, if you will. A pride and a pack." She paused, and received several nods of understanding.

 "A pride is built like a lion's pride. It's pretty much a dictatorship. From what I've been told, this is what the previous Avenger line up was like." Tony confirmed this with a thumbs up. "The pride has three positions, a leader, the followers, and the unworthy. These names are kind of self explanatory, but I'll go into detail anyway. Friday, can you pull up a picture of the Avengers from right after Ultron?" She had gotten used to the AIs presence, and learned all she could about the old team's dynamics as she could. To say she was angry about the Civil War was an understatement. She was absolutely livid.

 "As you can see here, Rogers is very much the leader." She pointed him out where he was standing tall looking down his nose at Tony, with the others behind him. It was obviously from when they confronted Tony about his part in Ultron's creation. 

 "Now everyone, sans Thor and Vision, behind Rogers are his followers. He places their worth above Tony, Thor, and Vision's. Those three are the unworthy." Brea gave Tony an apologetic grimace. 

 "Tony was at the very bottom of the pride, mostly because no one cared enough about Thor and Viz and were too scared of them to properly 'put them in their place' if you will. Had Mr. Banner been there, he would have been pushed down like Tony. You are lucky he wasn't, because from what I've seen about the Hulk, he has similar instincts to mine. Hence why he ran. It was either flight or fight."

 "So it's like those Alpha/Beta/Omega stories in the internet's fanfiction," Kamala summed up. 

 "Probably," Brea agreed. "On to what you guys are. A pack. If a pride is a similar to lions, then a pack would be the equivalent to wolves." They all seemed to accept the analogy.

"There are five positions in a pack.  A leader, the leader's mate, the fighter, the warriors, and the domestics. Most of you are warriors, but Pepper, May, Laura, Cooper, Lila, and Nathaniel are domestics. Warriors are respected, but without domestics a pack would fall apart. Tony's the leader, Stephen his mate, and Carol is the fighter, or leader of the warriors." They all looked interested with the new information. 

 "In a strict pack, the train of dominance would go in order from leader, mate, fighter, warriors, and finally domestics. As it is, you lot are the most lax pack I have ever met. I've seen Pepper order Tony around like it's as easy as breathing," she held up a hand, stalling whatever objection Tony had. "Don't deny it, you know it's true, and I've seen Carol give up command to someone else with a better plan in the middle of battle. If you had been alive a couple centuries ago, you would have been shunned by the more traditional Shapeshifters and called dysfunctional."

 Harley grinned. "We put the fun in dysfunctional," he quipped.

"And now?" Rhodey asked, leaning forward. 

"Now you have the respect of the last Shifter on earth," Brea congratulated. "It's worth, like, two dollars and a popsicle stick."

 "You said a few centuries like it's not a long time," Jessica noted. "How old  _are_ you?"

 "Roughly? 2,250 years old," Brea admitted with a blush. "But I'm the equivalent of a fifteen year old human."

 "Wait, how old were you when you went on your own?" Laura asked. 

"750," Brea said.

"If my math's right, and it always is," Tony said. "That means you've been on your own since you were five."

Brea shrugged. "Yeah." It was what it was.

Hope visibly swallowed an outburst. "What happened to cause that, if I may?" 

Brea weighed the advantages of telling them about her past. The last one to get this close ended up betraying her, eventually leading to her time with HYDRA.  On the other hand, trust goes both ways, and she really liked these people.

 "My original pack was murdered. I won't go into much detail, but it led to a species wide hunt. Eventually everyone was captured and-slash-or killed off." She glanced up catching several appalled looks. 

 "How do you know you're the last one?" Matt asked. He didn't sound confrontational, just curious.

 "All Shifters feel an instinctive draw towards each other, hence why we place such value on prides and packs. I no longer feel any pull and haven't seen another for years," Brea rubbed her hands together.

 "Those men," Peter started. "The ones that we watched try to catch you, they were hunters."

 "Yep," Brea said, popping the 'p'. "Bunch of  _clävern_ , that group."

 "You called them pancakes, " Harley recalled with a nostalgic look. "I will forever commemorate you for that." Brea nodded her thanks.

 "What's  _clävern_ mean?" Lila asked impatiently.

Brea actually looked embarrassed. "It's Bakish, the native language of Shapeshifters, for chicken nugget."

 Cooper's mouth dropped open in shock. "You speak Gen Z?!" She scratched the back of her head.

 "I had to blend in somehow. Tumblr was an easy and quick way to learn."

 Peter actually giggled. "Vine?"

 "Don't need no degree to be a clothing hanger," she quoted back. Kamala turned to Tony with a determined look on her face.

 "I'm keeping her."

 Tony raised his hands in surrender. "I'm not the boss here. Ask Pepper." Everyone looked at him, then turned to Brea, and back to Tony again. 

 "Absolutely whipped," Jessica told him. Tony looked like he was about to argue but then something else caught his attention. 

 "How many languages do you speak?" He blurted.

 "A lot," she said. "I've been around since Latin was still a thing."

 "Who cares?" Harley asked bluntly. "She speaks the language of the internet. We need to add her to the YouTube channel. We'll be back later." He grabbed Brea's wrist, which she found she was okay with. He and the others dragged her out of the common room, leaving the adults to their discussions.

Peter and Kamala led the way down a hall Brea had not been to and all six children loaded onto the elevator. Cooper told Friday to take them to the training room, and the elevator began to descend. The doors opened into a humongous gym spanning the entire floor.

There was a climbing wall in the back and some sort of American Ninja Warrior course running along the right side of the room. Equipment was stacked in a corner, and mats covered the middle of the floor. A track running around the outside of everything pulled the look together.

"Woah," Brea whispered reverently, spinning around slowly as to take everything in. "You train here?"

 "Yeah, it's also where we make all of the videos," Cooper said. "Mostly random shorts of life living with superheroes." 

 "Oh," Brea said. "What are we doing today?"

 "Mainly introducing people to you. Unless you want to remain anonymous. Peter wears his mask all of the time, and the fans understand his need for privacy," Kamala hastily added.

 "Nah, it's cool," Brea said. "I think one of the main reasons I was so effective for HYDRA was that I had a generic face. If I got some coverage, it would get rid of one reason they might want me back."

 "Okay. You wanna make it serious, or just kind of ad lib?" Lila asked. 

 "I haven't had this much fun  in a long time. Let's improvise," Brea said .

 "Sounds good. We'll just sit in the mats to start," Harley directed. He had a camera in his hand that Brea didn't even realize he had picked up. 

 "And action!"

 *******

_The video starts, revealing five kids sitting cross-legged on some bright blue and red sparring mats. Four of them are the channel's regular hosts, but there was a girl, probably about fifteen, with silver eyes, black fluffy wolf-like ears sticking out of her dirty blond hair, and a black tail with stripes not unlike those of a tiger's whipping around behind her._

**Spider-Man:**   _(off camera)_ All right, it's on!

 **Harley:** Hey Superfans! Welcome back to the Superfamily channel! 

 **Kamala:** _(grabbing the new girl's shoulders)_ We're here with a new guest who's going to be hanging around a lot more. This is Brea...

 **Brea:** "Silver" Shadow. Brea "Silver" Shadow.

 **Cooper:** Right. We found her at the corner of 39th and 42nd one day -

 **Harley:** _(cutting Cooper off)_ To make a long story short, we've adopted her, she's now here to stay. 

 **Brea:** Now Kam and Lila aren't outnumbered.

 **Lila:** _(ominously)_ The numbers are even now, boys.

 **Spider-Man:** _(whispering, still off camera)_ Aw, shit.

 **Harley:** Don't worry guys, I still have the prototype potato guns.

 **Kamala:** Bitch, I hope the fuck you do!

 **Brea:** You'll be a dead son of a bitch, I tell you that!

**Lila:** _(crackles maniacally)_

**Cooper:** Pfft, you wouldn't try anything. 

_The camera cuts out. The screen is black for a few seconds and then it starts recording again. The picture is shaky, someone is obviously holding the camera while they hide behind some boxes._

**Kamala:** Where are you, ya 'lil shits?  _(she stalks on screen, holding something that looks suspiciously like a vegetable cannon.)_

 **Brea:** _(coming up behind Kamala holding her own potato weapon)_ Shhhh. Hold up for a sec.  _(her ears twitch around and suddenly her head spins around as she stares directly at the camera)_

 **Lila:** _(behind Brea)_ There.

 **Spider-Man:** Shit. Fuck. Shit.  _(He, and consequently the camera, get up and start running backwards. A quick glance to the right and left show that the young boys stuck together.)_

 **Cooper:**  How did they do that!?

 **Harley:** I don't know man! The last thing I remember is holding the launchers with you guys, and then they're being aimed at us!

_The boys end up trapped in a corner. Slowly, the girl advance as one. As they get closer, you can make out chunks of potato in their hair and clothes. Once they make it a respectful distance away, they stop in tandem, and open fire. The screen goes black again, only to pop up with a new shot in the original location. All of the kids had obviously showered and changed. The girls all have wet hair, and the boys are still practically dripping, as if they didn't even dry off._

**Lila:**   That was awesome!

 **Harley:** Easy for you to say.

 **Cooper:** How'd you guys do that thing?

 **Brea:** _(cocking her head)_ What thing?

 **Spider-Man:** _(once again behind the camera)_ You know, the Murder Sashay™ thing. Like, I've seen other people do the Murder Strut™ but you guys  literally sashayed. 

 **Brea:** Oh, that. I picked it up  during my...training, and taught it to Kamala.

 **Kamala:** I taught it to Lila.

 **Lila:** There you go.

 **Harley:** Y'all got lucky.

**Kamala, Brea, and Lila:** _(slowly bring up their middle fingers, with matching glares)_

**Kamala:**  Prepare yourself.

**Harley:** _(groans and flops onto his back)_

**Cooper:**  Ms. Keisha?  _(Crawls over to Harley)_ Ms. Keisha? Oh my fucking god, she fucking dead.

_The video ends on a zoomed in panel of Lila, who once again started cackling maniacally._

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000  
> Any recommendations are welcome!


	6. Chapter 6

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little intermission with the Rogue avengers.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I had a commenter, (Thank you to the wonderful badwolf1) point out to me some holes in the plot, they are explained in this chapter.
> 
> Even though Wanda purposefully joined with HYDRA, I feel like she would have a lot more control than other fics make her out to have. I also think she was some sort of telepathic mutant before the experiments, and the infinity stone simply enhanced her powers. Just a HC of mine, I guess.

10 Months after Civil War

 "Is it done?" Steve asked Natasha as she and Wanda returned back to Wakanda.

 "Yes," Wanda said. "I implanted it deep enough that they won't be able to tell their feelings apart from it." 

 "Good," Steve said, leading the way back to the house they were staying in. Their guards were still slumped on the floor asleep, Wanda having done a very good job with her magic. 

 "We need to go over the plan again," Natasha said. "That way we are ready when the time comes."

Steve was proud of the two. They had done everything he asked them to, and more. Granted, the sorcerer and the cranky black-haired woman were a bit of a challenge for Wanda, but she got her powers from an infinity stone. She also trained with HYDRA, where according to Bucky, they accepted no mistakes. She had this in the bag.

He felt a small bit of sadness at the thought of his best friend. Steve told him that he wasn't the Winter Soldier, that HYDRA wouldn't be able to reach them, but Bucky was adamant that he wouldn't be safe with all of his triggers, so he went back into cryo. As soon as Wanda's idea took root though, he would be able to get Buck the help he deserved via Tony's BARF machine. Steve would even allow Tony to help them use it, under supervision of course.

 "I'll go get Sam," he decided. "Grab Clint and Scott and meet me in the living room."

The girls nodded and headed their own ways. Steve watched them go before turning to go find Sam. What a strong pair of dames, they deserved the world.

 

On his way to Sam's room, Steve was stopped by T'Challa. The king  was flanked by two guards, as though Steve would try to hurt him. Better for the peace of mind, he guessed.

 "Captain Rogers," T'Challa greeted.

 "Your Majesty," Steve answered back with a bow. He thought it was a bit overkill, but the guards always demanded he treat T'Challa with respect. Whatever, they would be back in the U. S. soon anyways.

 "May I walk with you?" They both knew it wasn't a request, but manners were always required from the leader of a nation.

 "Of course," Steve's said. "I was just headed to find Sam."

 "Then I will not take more of your time than necessary. I simply wanted to remind you that if you choose to leave Wakanda, you will not be welcomed back."

 Steve frowned. "I know, King T'Challa. We haven't planned on leaving, however," he lied. He never understood why people thought he was a bad liar or that he had an awful poker face, but his boy scout honor legacy had its moments.

 "Are you sure?" The young ruler asked. "As I have received notice from a former member of this household tha-"

 "Steve!" Wanda ran down the hall, cutting whatever T'Challa was going to say off.

 Steve fought back a sign of relief. "Yes, Wanda?"

 "Just wanted to let you know that Sam was in the kitchen." She purposefully didn't look at his entourage so they wouldn't see the red in her eyes. When it died down, she turned to the king. "Is something wrong, your majesty?"

 T'Challa cleared his throat and squares back his shoulders. "No, in fact, I must be going. It was nice talking to you, Captain."

 "You too," Steve said, and his company swiftly turned on their heel and walked away. "Thank you for that."

 Wanda smiled, and once again Steve was reminded that she was really just a kid. "No problem. We're family and family watches each other's backs. Oh, and Sam  _is_ actually in the kitchen."

 Steve returned her grin. "What are we waiting for, then?"

They strode down the hallway, following the sounds of the team's laughter. The brightly lit eating area was small compared to Tony's, but they would get back there soon, so it didn't matter. Natasha sidled up to him almost immediately, but he noticed Scott wasn't present. Oh well, they could fill him in later.

 "Okay guys, we have an announcement," Steve told the room, causing the volume quiet down. He turned to Wanda. "Explain what you accomplished."

 Wanda's face lit up. "Alright. I was practicing my magic the other day, when I felt someone.  Now usually I have a sort of bond with people whose minds I've influenced for a long time, right? I can feel that they're alive, basically, but nothing more than that. So I'm wondering who it is, and turns out it's Bucky's partner from his Winter Soldier days! Isn't that cool? Then I tell Tasha about it and now we have the most awesome plan!"

Everyone turned to Natasha, who cleared her throat. "When Wanda came to me with this information, my first thought was 'let's kill whoever it is' but then I got to turning it around in my head. If we have Bucky, then Bucky's partner would probably work with us. Now we've needed someone to infiltrate Stark's little club house for a while now. Why not this person? Therefore Wanda and I snuck into the Compound a couple nights ago, and she put the idea in the residents' heads that should they come across this person, they should do whatever they can to catch and keep them. Now all we have to do is wait for Bucky's partner to get accepted into the club, and then we approach them, with Bucky of course, and convince them to work with us."

Clint seemed to mull over the plan. "How do we know that the partner will still work with Bucky?"

Wanda smirked. "Trust me, she will. They were practically inseparable. Almost as close as Pietro and I." Her face fell at the mention of her lost brother, and Clint patted her shoulder reassuringly.

Sam grimaced. "I don't know, guys. This seems a little morally dubious."

 "So is attacking someone for no reason in the middle of Siberia," Clint pointed out. Steve felt a flash of guilt at the memory, but quickly pushed it away. He was in the right, after all. And Tony should be grateful he didn't tell the rest of the team about the video. Thor knows he values his privacy.

Sam seemed to still be having doubts. "Are you sure about this, I mean..."

 "Relax," Natasha said. "We're not hurting anyone, it will all be legal." 

 Sam relented. "I guess you're right."

Steve looked  over his team, his heart pulsing with happiness. He still felt a little off, but that was probably their two missing members. He knew Tony would see reason soon, and once he came running back Steve would forgive him, before taking command of the new team. Tony would be benched permanently, of course, but Steve would let him continue their funds. Tony would appreciate that. He smiled. This was going to work.

 ******

Scott listened from the doorway, slowly growing more and more horrified. He spun around and grabbed his bag, slinging it over his back. He had told T'Challa about Wanda and Natasha's leaving hoping that the king would stop them. Obviously the witch had gotten to him too. Now Scott had no one.

Hurrying to the border, he was sickened that he had helped these people. They were freaking delusional. Scott honestly thought this place was worse than jail. At least the people there admitted that they were in the wrong.

He shivered at what he had heard. Taking one last look at the place he had called home, he left in the direction of the nearest town. He had to warn the Avengers before it was too late.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000
> 
> I realize some of y'all may not like that Wanda's powerful enough to influence Stephen, but like I said, I think she was a mutant before HYDRA and her natural telepathic abilities were just strengthened. Stephen also hasn't been a sorcerer for very long in my opinion, so I don't think he'd recognize the signs of being manipulated.
> 
> Jessica Jones spoilers below:
> 
> Even though Jessica's immune to Kilgrave's control, I think that it mostly comes from her enhance healing ability. It's like how it people are exposed to something too much, they can develop an immunity or an allergy. In my mind, Wanda's powers are different from others, because of her interactions with the mind stone, so Jess can still fall for them.


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Wong discovers something off

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure Wong wouldn't be at the Compound that often, so I'm running with the idea he wasn't around when Wanda visited.  
> Also, sorry for the wait, real life decided to sucker punch me in the face and my summer classes run at a pace three times that of a school year.

Wong was becoming worried. Stephen wasn't acting like himself at all, and Wong was determined to get to the bottom of it.

At first he thought that Stephen was just adapting to life with a family and friends when he's always worked alone, but now he wasn't so sure. He thought it was odd when Stephen took in Brea without consent, Hippocratic oath and everything, and now he had a growing suspicion something was very much wrong.

Wong hadn't been around the Compound all that much, and he barely knew the other Avengers, but he was pretty sure at least some of them would say something about Brea's unwilling imprisonment. When they all met her, though, no one seemed to bat an eye. Not wanting to give up his cards yet, Wong played along.

Now though, watching them interact with Brea, he realized they were all borderline obsessive. He watched as the girl tried to pretend that everything was fine, even as she slowly pulled away. He had never seen anything like it before, even when the Ancient One was still alive.

After studying the Compound's residents a little more, Wong went to the library back at Kamar -Taj. Arriving just outside of the doors, he was startled to find the Cloak waiting for him. It usually spent most of its time with Stephen, so he knew it noticed the unusual attitudes.

"Any ideas?" He asked it. Levi shook its collar. It then proceeded to try to tell him something, fluttering around. Wong got its meaning. "I as well. If I had known what they would do, I wouldn't have let them keep her." The Cloak twisted itself to look like it was crossing its arms.  _What are we going to do?_

"We prepare. "

They spent the next few days reading about mental manipulation and meticulously came up with a plan. Leaving the students with another Sanctum, Wong portaled back to Compound, Levi on his heels. May looked up from where she was making sandwiches.

"Hello," she said. "Care to join us for lunch?"

Wong clasped his hands. "I'm afraid not. There's something I have to get done here and then I must head back to the Sanctum."

"Oh," May replied, wiping her hands on a towel. "Is there anything I can do to help?"

"No," he said. "I simply need a moment of your time."

May smiled. "Of course. At least let me pack you a sandwich?"

"I would not be opposed to such an offer," Wong admitted. When May turned to make another lunch, he spoke up again. "Friday, can you ask for all of the others to join us?"

"Yes sir," Friday replied dutifully. A moment after Tony strode in, followed by Peter and Harley.

"Beyonce! My baby girl was telling me you called?"

Wong levelled him with an unimpressed look. "Yes."

Tony frowned when he didn't elaborate. "Any particular reason why?"

Wong ignored him in favor of Stephen, Rhodey, Vision, Carol, and the other women, who entered the kitchen. Brea snuck in last in a  small cat form, probably a caracal.

 "I have reason to suspect that the last villain you went after may have left a magical imprint on you," Wong addressed the group. He was glad Matt wasn't there, as it wasn't technically a lie, but he got nervous all of the same.

 "Anything harmful?" Carol asked, sounding worried.

 "Nothing of the sort." Wong assured her. "All I have to do is cast a spell, and then I will head back to the Sanctum."

 Tony seemed apprehensive. "What kind of spell?"

 "If memory serves me correct," Stephen stepped in. "A simple revealing spell. Think of it as an X-Ray, or a CT scan." 

Tony pulled a face and Wong stole a look at Brea. She was sitting on the counter farther away from the group since the last time he saw her. She cocked her head at him, silently asking him what he was up to. The Cloak twisted itself and she watched it contemplatingly. 

Wong returned his attention to the group, watching the two have a silent conversation out of the corner of his eye. "It wouldn't hurt. In fact, you won't even feel it."

 "You won't be reading our minds or anything?" Tony asked, as behind them Brea flicked her short tail . The Cloak shifted it's shoulders back bent its neck, causing its collar to droop. Brea's eyes widened, flashed to Wong for a moment, and narrowed back at Levi, who crossed its 'arms' and have a sharp nod.

 "No, just checking for any foreign magical signatures," Wong said. 

 "If you think something's wrong," Rhodes started. "Why hasn't Strange noticed anything?"

"I may be stronger than Wong," Stephen took over. "But as much as I hate to admit it, Wong is more experienced. I may have missed something that he might catch."

 "Is everyone in agreement that I may do this?" Wong asked. There was a series of sharp nods, and Wong brought his hands together in a praying like form. Then he moved them apart, and brought his palms up. An arc of golden magic hopped from hand to hand. He wove the  string into a bowl-like shape, and threw it up into the air. It expanded until it took up the entirety of the room, creating a dome, and promptly disappeared. 

 "That's it?" Tony sounded perplexed.

 "Yes," Wong addressed. "Brea, if you don't mind I would like a second opinion." She nodded and jumped down from her perch , shifting seamlessly into a more human shape. 

 "Wait," Pepper said. "Where are you taking her?" 

 Wong frowned, noticing the possessive looks in their eyes return full force. It almost seemed artificial. Brea obviously took note of it too, as she moved closer to the Cloak under the guise of stretching. "Just to the London Sanctum, and maybe if she wants, Kamar-Taj," he answered smoothly.

They all looked like they wanted to argue, when Brea spoke up. "That sounds really cool. Maybe I'll find a relic of my own!" She winked, but now that he knew what to look for he saw the desperation in her eyes. "Besides, it's only a portal away."

 This was obviously one of the few things she actually showed interest in as some of the group sagged with resignation. The others still seemed a little confrontational. 

 "Why not take Strange?" Jessica pointed out. "He's the Sorcerer Supreme." They all started nodding at this fact.

 "Because Stephen has a duty to the New York Sanctum, and he needs to be able to protect it at a moment's notice. He also should be here with you, in case of emergency. It's easier for him to be contacted this way." Wong prayed that they would accept the explanation. To his immense relief, they seemed to give in. 

 "Okay," Tony said. "But have her back by dinner." May came around the counter and handed Brea two brown paper bag lunches.

 Wong bowed his head, and turned to create a portal. As he and Brea stepped through, she gave them all a smirk. "Oh, and I'm keeping Levi." The cloak in question darted through just as the portal closed.

Almost immediately, the smile dropped off her face. "They're being controlled, aren't they." She stated it like a fact, rather than a question.

 "I think so," Wong answered, surprised she put it together that quickly. " I do not have definitive proof, however. May I ask how you've reached this conclusion? "

Brea shrugged. "They act weird and smell off." At Wong's inquisitive look, she elaborated. "At first, I thought they were just really excited to hang out, when there was at least one person around me at all times. Then as the novelty of a new member should have worn off, they remained the same. I thought it was overprotectiveness, and didn't look closer because I wanted a pack bad enough to make enough excuses to cover a serial killer. Eventually as I got to know them, though, I realized they all acted a little differently around me. A little more confrontational, a little more...engaged. They also have a scent to them that almost smells familiar, but it's super faint. Like a shirt was sprayed with perfume before being put in a closet for a few years. The only thing I can think of is either they are all mentally unstable, or they are being controlled. It's like they have bipolar disorder or something, and I don't think the Cloak of Levitation would choose a partner with a crazy factor."

 Wong blinked. "That is surprisingly well thought out."

 "Also Levi told me."

Ahhh, there was the kicker. Her knew there was more to the st- wait, "Levi told you?" He asked in a monotone voice.

 She shrugged. "Yeah, while you were bullshitting your way into getting their consent to do your mumbo jumbo."

 "You understood what it was saying?"

 "Yep," she said.

He tried not to stare at her incredulously. "Stephen can barely get the Cloak's meaning not even half of the time, and he's know it for a year, yet you understood it perfectly after only hanging out for a week?"

 "Body language comes naturally to everybody when they're born," she stated matter-of-factly. "It's not my fault you humans choose to ignore it. It's the main method of communication between living creatures. Even Shapeshifters prefer it over the verbal Bakish."

He didn't bother with an answer. She turned her attention to the room they were in, although he had no doubt that she had already scoped it out, counted all exits, and marked anything and everything that could be used as a weapon. He realized she was probably a little nervous around him, so he moved a little further away from her to give her space. At least her time with the Avengers wasn't completely wasted. She seemed slightly more confident, although that could just be because she knew him and he wasn't what seemed like a possessive psycho.

She stepped slowly and deliberately, as if she was scared she would break the floor from just walking on it. The Cloak seemed to notice her hesitancy, and changed itself into a scarf that seemed more like a snake, and wrapped itself around her neck. She absentmindedly reached up to pet what would be its tail, her own unusually still behind her. She slipped up the stairs silently and inspected the three doors at the top. If Wong's memory  served correctly, one was showing the Amazon river, another the coast of  Europe, and a third the Big Bend National Park in Texas. 

She spun the dial next to the Europe one, and it showed a fire ravaged country side. She opened the door and a puff of smoke came in. Sticking her head out, she looked back and forth before shutting the door.  

 "It appears California is in fire," she said. "Again."

Wong laughed, which seemed to surprise her. He sobered quickly however. "We need to decide what to do about the Avengers."

 "Show me what you've got," she said.

 "Not much," Wong replied as he used his magic to pull up several humanoid figures, each a different color. Brea whistled.

 "They've got really pretty auras," she said with an appreciative note. "No wonder they are so nice."

 "Unfortunately, I can not find what is wrong with them," Wong sighed. She made an aborted motion to move closer, but ended up remaining where she was. Wong recognized it for what it was and backed away from his display a bit. She shot him a grateful look and started manipulating the figures, focusing on the heads in particular.

 "When I invited you here, it was simply to get you out of their grasp, albeit for only a few hours. I didn't think you understood the mystic arts," Wong mused.

 "Can't use it, only manipulate what's already there," Brea murmured, as if not paying attention to her answer. She enlarged the one who represented Tony 's head, and proceeded to do the same to the others. "My species is naturally born with abilities in magic, but pretty much all power is focused on form changing."

Wong took this in. "That is why the Cloak is attracted to you, you are both beings derived from similar energies."

 "Mhmmm." She looked closer at the heads in front of her. "No way."

 "What did you find?" Wong asked hesitantly. Brea pushed the models towards him angrily. 

 "Look closely at their hippocampus."

 Wong did as she said. "It's...slightly tinted pink." The Shifter was already pacing, tail lashing around and mouth filled with unconsciously spawned fangs hissing insulting threats.

 "Witchey-Bitchey is back, huh?" She growled. "I will tear her throat out next time I see her! Hail HYDRA all the way, Witchey?" She paused, and seemed to consider something, before resuming her rant. "I will murder her, but if her brother's still alive, I'ma keep him. He's a lil shit, but fun.  Lupo liked him, and if the Bitch thinks she can control me then Lupo's probably still alive. So I'll keep the brother alive for him. Her though, I will put her head on a pike and laugh. She was controlling her brother anyway, so he probably wouldn't care if I danced on her grave." Brea devolved into another language, and Wong watched her with interest. 

In all of the short times Wong had seen and interacted with Brea, she had never lost her cool this badly. Sure, she had flinched or pulled away, but even when she was scared she never lashed out to badly. The most she had done was snap at Harley when she had what was probably a panic attack, but Wong couldn't be sure, because it only seemed like she spaced out while in a Doberman form.

He had never witnessed her actually spewing threats, and at that moment he saw a glimpse of the assassin she really was. All this time, he had only seen a  terrified teenager afraid of trusting anyone, and now, he was honestly slightly frightened. 

The Cloak/scarf gently unwrapped itself from her neck, and slinked down her arm, until it really did resemble a scarlet snake. She stopped and looked down at it in astonishment. Then she laughed. 

"Oh Witchey's got another thing coming! But first, that pink tint you noticed?  That's a piece of the Scarlet Witch's power. "

Wong looked at the magical holograms again. "It's not strong enough to influence them at the level of is, though. It's barely enough to make suggestions."

"That's cause she's a mutant too. That pink is her signature. All of us with HYDRA have one, to mark our victims. It's not intentional, and can't be helped. Her methods are a mix of her power and mutation. The power just weak enough to pass detection, the telepathy bug small enough to sneak through even the most secure mental walls. Without each other, no harm done, together, a recipe for disaster."

 "All of the books in Kamar-Taj have nothing to help with this, " Wong admitted. 

Brea seemed lost in thought, then looked up. "Don't worry, I know someone. He owes me a favor."

 "How do you know him?" Wong asked skeptically. 

 "Long story, basically I was in the Russian mafia, who knew a guy, who knew a guy, so on and so forth, until this lesbian couple, one chick with the Russians and one chick with the Italian mafia. Anyway, the Italian knows me, cause I was part of her mafia for years, and she got me in contact with the Mexican hierarchy. Apparently her cousin lives there or something. " Brea waved her hand vaguely. "Semantics. So the cousin in Mexico set me up with this dude in Del Rio, that's in Texas, and after working for him for a bit, I ended up in Las Vegas and met this chick. Her hubby sent me to Colorado, who..." She trailed off at his more than unimpressed eyebrow raise. "Right get to the point, you don't want to hear about my connections. Plausible deniability and all that. Anyway, turns out some dude I saved from a mutant protest was this other dude's student, and now he owes me a queue."

 "That was a very long explanation for a very not surprising ending," Wong commented dryly.

 Brea gave him a short smile. "I try my hardest. Do you have a phone, preferably one not connected to Stark Industries or Friday? The others can't hear about this, because if they become aware the Witch will know that we know, and trust me when I say we don't want that."

Wong pointed down the hall. "Third door on the left, there's a landline. "

Brea nodded and took off towards the room, the Cloak still wrapped around her wrist. 

****

A phone rings in the middle of a well furnished office. A man in a wheelchair reaches over and lifts the ear piece from the cradle.

"Hello?"

"Charles, this is Silver. I've called to cash in on that favor you owe me... "

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000  
> If you caught the studio C reference, please be my friend ;)


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brea catches back up with an old friend, and Scott finally reaches help.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I was not expecting so many people to read this fic. But y'all are here and now I'm feeling the pressure to do good by this story. Curse you, you kudos giving fiends, now I'm feeling motivated!

"What do you need?" Charles asked after a pause, which Brea presumed was him shuffling others out of the room for privacy. She resisted the childish urge of the comeback 'help hiding some bodies.' They'd already done that for each other before, anyway. She admired the effective deadliness of the one he called 'Wolverine'.

 "The New Avengers have been compromised. I don't feel confident telling you the details over the phone, and I'd prefer if you wouldn't read my mind."

 "Why are you helping the Avengers?" The professor asked curiously.

 Brea considered her answer. She honestly felt at home with her new pack, although full trust was not included in that package. She had enough faith in them that they wouldn't kill her, but that was as far as it extended. She had faked almost her entire 'healing' when she spent time with Stephen and Tony in the room, if only to get out. She did unintentionally come to allow them to cover her when she met the rest of team.

She didn't feel that they were completely real with her, but now she understood better. She had probably drifted the closest to Wong of all people, because at least he was honest with her. His obvious asexuality helped her to conquer her fear of his gender, as well as the Cloak. She and Levi had a lengthy conversation about all of the members of the team, and she subconsciously felt connected with it and trusted it. Probably because of their similar base magic. Anyway, after Levi explained Wong's reasons for not speaking up, but that he noticed something was weird, Brea started relaxing around the man more. 

Back to the topic at hand, she thought about it. The Avengers had locked her up and treated her without her consent, yet she still felt responsible for them. She had been captured so many times though, that the significance of imprisonment was kind of becoming a grey point. She also felt guilty that she didn't kill the Witch when she had the chance. She had been too focused on her and Lupo's escape, that she fled without a second thought. Then Lupo sacrificed himself to save her and she couldn't get close to HYDRA. She growled, frustrated. 

There was a telling silence on the other end of the line. 

  _I care for the Avengers,_ she thought with startling revelation.  _I  don't trust them because they are mindntrolled, and I recognized it subconsciously. They also captured me, but that kind of loops back to the mind rape. But I care about them. That's why I am comfortable sharing information with them. What kind of sick messed up shit is in my head, that I have feelings for my captors?_

Levi, obviously noticing her distress, rubbed her arm comfortingly. Oh yeah, phone call.

 "I've come into an alliance with the team," Brea revealed. 

 "An alliance?"

 "Thank you for the overwhelming sense of confindence, Charles,"  she deadpanned. 

 She could hear his grin. "It just seems unusual with your character."

 "Are you referring to the fact that the last time I told you I had a partnership, we took down the New Zealand black market?" She asked saucily. Maybe she hadn't told Wong the full extent of her interactions with Charles, but meh. She deserved some cynicism.

 "No, I'm reminding you of what happened in Tokyo."

 Brea gasped dramatically. "You promised to never bring that up!"

 "I'm simply bringing it to the forefront of your mind before you get any ideas." 

 "First off, the shrimp was not my fault, that umbrella had it out for me. Secondly, my plans are excellent, thank you very much. I was professionally trained by HYDRA, after all. I am offended by that very thought."

Charles chuckled. "Are you sure?"

 Brea blinked. "Um...yeah?"

 "Brea Silver Shadow, did you forget about Germany?" He demanded.

 "I concede to your point, and I raise you. Norway." Brea had missed this familiar bickering between them. She knew Charles had noticed the nervousness in her voice and was trying to put her at ease, and she was relieved to say it was working.

 "I'll do you one better. Canada."

 "Damn. I was hoping you had forgotten about that," Brea admitted. 

 "There is no way I will ever forget about Canada," Charles said seriously.

 Brea shrugged, not that he could see it. "Getting back on track, can you meet me in the Kamar-Taj on Friday?"

 "Of course. I'll be there at noon. Do you want me to come alone?"

 Brea was glad that her companionship with Charles had come this far. "Yes, please. It's been a rough couple of weeks."

 "How many bad days?" He asked, concerned. 

 "A lot," she said sheepishly. "Today is a good day, though. I was comfortable enough to leave the Compound with Wong, one of the sorcerers."

 "That's a step in the right direction," he appraised, but then he sighed. "Mental health is important, trust me, I'd know. You're aware you could always stay with us, right?"

 "Yeah, I know. It's just, I don't want to put the kids in danger. Your school would be easier to find if I was there. My magical trace is harder to track within New York city, and being around wizards just helps hide it further. With your school out in the countryside, any Hunter within a fifty mile radius would be able to find me, leading them to you."

 "We can protect ourselves," he reminded her. 

 "I don't doubt it, but I don't want you to have to," she said. 

 "Alright," he gave in. "I'll see you Friday." He paused. "And Brea?"

 "Yes?"

 "I hope you have more good days." With that, he hung up.

Brea returned the phone to the cradle, and leaned back against the wall. Levi nudged her hand, and she began stroking its collar. She took a deep breath, settling her nerves. She didn't lie, today was one of the best days she had had in a while. She was feeling confident, especially with being out of the eyes of the controlled. A sudden burst of protective anger took her by surprise.

She was mad at the Witch for corrupting the Avengers, which for a moment seemed weird, as Brea didn't really know them. Then she thought back in their auras, bright bursts of color revealing the goodness of their souls. They were some of the purest people she had ever met, and Brea felt irrational rage at their compromise. Fucking maternal Shapeshifter instincts. She squashed the itch to rush back and wrap each person in a huge, fluffy, indestructible blanket, even the men. Huh, today was a  _really_ good day. Instead of the usual anxiety that plagued her thoughts, all she felt was sympathy for the poor team.

Even when under mind control, they tried to be as nice as they could, granted going about in the worst way possible. They allowed her into their pack without even knowing a quarter of her story. She guessed she could try to attribute it to their inhibited thinking, but for some reason even with HYDRA, Bitchey couldn't force someone to allow Brea into their pack or pride. And she had tried on many, many people. The best she could do was put an obsession spell over her victims, which is probably what she did to the Avengers.

Pondering over her feelings, Brea shuffled down the hall back the way she came. Wong wasn't waiting where she left him, but Levi tugged her arm towards another room off to the side. Through the doorway was a small kitchen with a table shoved against their wall. Every surface was covered with parchment, maps, spells, and diagrams adorning the pages. Wong was sitting at the notable where he had stacked the papers into neat piles to make room to eat. 

When he noticed her, he gestured with the hand not occupied with a sandwich at another paper bag on the table. "You should eat." 

 Brea accepted his invitation graciously, and pushed some scrolls out of the way to hop on the counter. Levi finally released her forearm and reshaped itself back into a cloak. It watched her for a second before gently cuffing her shoulder.

 "What was that for?" She blurted, rubbing her bicep. It dipped its collar at Wong, who was watching them with barely hidden amusement. "What are you..? Oh yeah!"

She gave him an apologetic smile. "Sorry. My contact can help us. He'll meet us at Kamar-Taj on Friday at noon."

 Wong nodded his head. "Who is it?" 

 "Professor X, of the X-Men," she divulged. Wong didn't even look surprised.

 "Figures, from what you told me. He's a telepath, correct? He will be an invaluable asset." Wong seemed to debate something in his head, and then apparently figured it out. "If you don't mind me asking, how many 'contacts' do you have?"

 "Classified," she said with a teasing smile. Wong didn't rise to the bait and didn't ask for anymore information. Brea took a bite of her sandwich. And spit it back out with a grimace. "It's a sandwich. How did she mess up a sandwich?" 

 Wong shrugged and finished his off. "I've had students make worse. You get used to it."

 Brea stared at the offending item, then proceeded to take another bite with a fuck it. She had worse with HYDRA. As she ate the last of it, Wong's phone rang.

 "Yes, Stephen?" He answered, letting Brea know who it was at the same time. 

 She heard Stephen's tinny voice come through the speaker, "There is someone here wanting to talk with Brea."

 Catching her gaze, Wong retorted, "Who?"

 "Someone named Ant-Man, or Scott Lang. He said his information is time sensitive and he needs to speak with the ex-HYDRA agent immediately."

 "Give us two minutes," Wong said, and hung up. He and Brea stood up as one. "Did you hear all of that?"

 "Yes," Brea said. They returned to the foyer, and Wong opened a portal into the Compound's living room. Stephen, Carol, Hope, and Tony were all surrounding a man who Brea assumed to be Scott. He and Hope had obviously been in the middle of an intense conversation when they arrived.

Scott was unusually tan and travel weary, obviously having gone through a lot to reach them. Nevertheless, his eyes widened when  they landed on Brea, Wong, and Levi. He whistled. 

 "You are a lot younger than I thought you would be," he said dumbstruck. Then he shook his head and reached out his hand. "Scott Lang, Ant-Man."

 "I'm older than I look," Brea said, grasping his hand with a burst of anxiety that luckily wasn't strong enough too ruin her positive mindset. "Brea, Silver Shadow." She glanced around the room. "Will you all give us some privacy?"

 Tony and Stephen immediately geared up for an argument, but Carol forcefully dragged them out, muttering, "He asked for her. We can give them the room." Hope followed after one last emotional glare at Scott.

The man in question gave Wong and Levi a complicated look. Brea waved her hand. "They're with me." She took in his appearance once more, double checking that he had no hidden weapons or training. "Shall we go for a walk?"

Scott nodded and Wong led the way to the back door. Stepping out onto the lawn, Brea immediately turned down a well worn path that would lead to the tree line. At her guest's questioning glance, she said, "I don't want anyone to overhear us."

 Scott, for the most part, accepted the explanation. "As long has you're not talking me to the creepy forest to murder me and bury my body."

 "Please," Brea scoffed, twirling one of her butterfly knives between her fingers, a way to release nervous energy. "If I was going to kill you, I wouldn't do it in a wooded area. That's the first place the cops would look."

 Scott tripped over his own foot. Wong, who had kept quiet the entire time, retook the lead, breaking off the trail into a less dense are of foliage. Levi held the branches back for them, revealing a small clearing.

 "Okay," Brea said. "Shoot." 

 "I think that the New Avengers are being controlled somehow," Scott said cautiously.

 "We know, it's the Witch, what we want to know is why?" Brea interrupted. 

Scott held up his hands. "First, I want you to know I had no part in this, and I regret my part in the civil war."

 "We know," Brea repeated.

 "You wouldn't be here if you were still with them," Wong pointed out, speaking for the first time.

 Scott nodded. "And you get that I wish I hadn't joined in on Team Cap?"

 "Not our circus, not our monkeys," Brea said. "Take it up with Tony. "

Scott seemed crestfallen, but it was replaced with determination. "Alright. From what I over heard and what the others have told me, they're mad that Mr. Stark hasn't brought them back to the U.S. yet."

 "But they're international criminals," Brea said slowly, like she was explaining things to a child. 

He winced. "Yeah, I kind of fall in that category as well?"

 "Technically I am too, but who cares? What I meant was, they defied the will of 117 countries and their people, yet they think they'll be pardoned? Do I understand correctly?" Brea asked incredulously.

 "Ummmm, I guess?"

 "And they're not being controlled?"

 "I don't think so. I can't be sure though, 'cause I could be."

 Brea stared at him for a moment. "You're not. I worked with the Witch, I can usually tell if I'm looking for it."

 "Well then, they have a clear of a mind as a person can have when they're delusional."

 "And delusional people are the most dangerous type," Wong concluded.

 "Fuck!" Brea yelled, and threw a pair knives as hard as she could. They impaled themselves into a tree fifty yards away.

Scott stared at her with wide eyes. "Remind me not to get on your bad side. And I thought the eyes and tail were creepy," he  muttered to himself.

Brea elected to ignore him, looking at Wong. "I have a few more calls to make. Let's head back inside." She turned to Scott. "You going to hang around?"

He shook his head in a way that reminded her of a hyperactive puppy. "Yeah, I have some apologies to make and a girlfriend to suck up to."

Brea retrieved her blades. "Alright, let's get going then."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000


	9. Chapter 9

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Brea pulls some more favors and accidentally reveals more about her past.

Tony was pacing the empty room when they returned. Stephen kept reassuring him that Wong and Brea could handle themselves, but Tony was still worried. He asked Friday to keep track of them and ended up hitchhiking on her code to watch for himself. Then the group disappeared into the trees and he didn't have eyes in the woods. He made a mental note to fix that, when they walked in.

He, Stephen, Carol, and Hope all stood to attention. Wong held a finger to his lips, pointing at Brea who was in the phone. Tony was devastated to find it was an old BlackBerry. His fingers twitched, wanting to kill the outdated tech, but he held back. Barely.

Hope stalked over and grabbed Lang's arm. She dragged him towards a hallway where Tony knew there were a bunch of PymTech lawyers waiting in one of the conference rooms. The man's defeated face looked like he knew too.

Brea's voice carried over, speaking in rapid fire Greek. She spat something into the receiver and hung up. The three Avengers stared at her.

 "You know Greek?" Tony asked, and she shrugged. Then her phone rang out shrilly.

 " _Pronto_ ," she answered. Tony was taken aback hearing the Italian.

 " _Si_." She continued. " _Si. No_!" Stephen jumped at the outburst.

 " _Oddio, dove? Per esempio? No. Si, ho capito, ho capito_." She sighed. _"Che cosa? Mhmm. Che cosa fatto!" A pause. "Stupido. Non c'e una... Si. Perche? Cos'e successo? Ahhh. Come? Hmmmm. Si. Allora, a che ora? Domani, alle otto, si? Grazie. Okay, ciao ciao_!" She pressed the end call button with flourish. 

 "What was that about?" Carol ventured. 

 " _Un attimo_ ," she said, apparently not realizing she was still speaking Italian. " _Scusa_."

She dialed a number, and pulled a pen out from somewhere. " **Hallo? Ich bin's, Silver. Ja, ich habe einen Job für dich. Ja. Ich will nicht... keine Geld! Ich brauche eine Kredit, ein Reisepass, und eine Fahrkarte. Okay? Nein. Du kann**   **nicht...** " Brea scoffed." **Scheiß! Nein, ich will kein....ja**." She began writing furiously on her hand. " **Um zwei Uhr, ja? Nein. Ja, ja. Danke schön! Okay, okay, tchüss**!"

Brea punched the bridge of her nose. " _Ho stanco._ " Then she looked up as if she had forgotten other people were in the room. “ **Ist was** **?** "

Tony cleared his throat, glancing at the other occupants in the room. Even Wong seemed a little impressed. "You speak Italian, German, and Greek?" 

Brea put her pen away to wherever she had gotten it from. "Yeah, English too, obviously. And a few others. English was probably one of the easier ones, only because it didnt't have as many verb congugations. I learned other languages through English most of the time, but I'm still not fluent in it."

 "You seem to do pretty well," Carol objected.

 "What other languages do you speak?" Stephen asked, appearing lost in thought. 

 "Most of them are classified, but I can tell you the four we just discussed, Russian, French, Romanian, Swedish, and Chinese," she listed. "And of course, my native language of Bakish."

 Wong turned to Tony. "How many languages do you speak?"

 "29, but most of those I only know business words and enough pleasantries to invite politicians over for coffee or translate my own press conference." Tony froze in realization. "I think you are the first people to ask me that in a friend-wants-to-know-more-about-you manner."

 Carol stared at him. "What do you mean?"

 "The old  team didn't really care about what I could do until it was needed," Tony said tiredly, almost positive that his pain could be seen in his eyes when Stephen wrapped his arms around his waist. Tony turned around and burried his face in Stephen's neck.

 "The more I hear about this team," Stephen said. "The more I want to open up a portal to Helheim and shove them through."

 There was a quiet chuff from behind Stephen. Tony looked up to see Brea and Levi standing side by side with almost the exact same position. Brea was looking on at the two with crossed arms and what could almost be described as  gentle eyes. She cocked her head, ears twitching as if listening to the air.

 "What?" Tony snarked. 

Brea rolled her eyes. "Nothing, it's just, you two gays are so soft." Levi tapped her on her shoulder and she looked at it, and promptly burst out laughing.

 "We're not soft," Stephen said, offended, but the effect was kind of ruined when he extracted himself from Tony's embrace, only to slip his hand around Tony's hips and pull him to his side. "Why are you laughing?"

She caught her breath and got out, "Levi said you guys are so gay,  you make it question its sexuality."

Carol nodded. "Its true, you have this thing, the adorableness just rolls of you in waves." Even Wong chuckled at the affronted looks on the couple's faces. Tony grumbled and shoved his face into Stephen's robes, as if to block out the teasing, but he was sure they had seen his smile.

 "Wait," he said as a thought struck him. "Who were you talking to on the phone? And why did you need a passport and credit card?"

Brea raised an eyebrow. "A few of my acquaintances need some help, so I'm collecting favors and exchanging some jobs to get them that help."

 "What do you mean?" Carol asked. "What happened? "

 "Nothing you need concern yourselves with. Some buddies were just unexpectedly assaulted, so I'm getting eyes on the attackers."

 Tony frowned at her in shock. "We can help. What do you need?"

 Brea shook her head solemnly. "No, I appreciate the offer but you can't, this is something I need to do in my own. The best you guys can do is to let me go be there with them." 

 Tony was dumbstruck. This young girl already had so much responsibility in her shoulders, she didn't need to go halfway across the world to help some friends. She should be enjoying normal teenage stuff, not cashing dues with...whoever she was contacting. He  didn't see how he wouldn't be of any help, or at least his money. 

 Brea's phone rang once again, but this time she answered in English, if with a Canadian accent. "Is it done? Perfect. Eh? Yes, yes. No, thank you! I appreciate it so much. Save some of your next maple batch for me, will you? Of course. Thank you so much, bye!"  Huffing out a small laugh, Brea hung up. "I swear, Canadian stereotypes are always lived up to."

 "What did you ask who to do?" Stephen wondered aloud. Wong shot him a look, but Brea just turned her head to dig through her pockets, looking for something. 

 "You'll want plausible deniability for that one," she answered vaguely, finding some sort of cylinder looking thing that she pressed against the phone screen. The device popped and smoke rose from her hand. "Cool-io. And Wong, in answer to your not asked question, I used the landline 'cause this phone can be and is bugged."

 Wong tilted his head in recognition of the answer. Tony clapped for attention. "As much as I love cryptic statements, can we have a straight conversation for once?"

 "Of course, but I need to leave in approximately eleven minutes and forty seven seconds, so try to get to the point," Brea said, checking her... pocket watch? Where did she even-no, time limit.

 "You can't just leave for Europe or whatever," Tony said.

 Brea snorted. "You say that like you could stop me."

 Carol crossed her arms. "He's right, you're part of the team, or pack or whatever, and we can help you."

 "Honey," Brea said with a dark sweetness, levelling her silver eyes at Tony, Stephen, and Carol. "I have seen things that would make a grown man cry. I have experienced things that you cannot even imagine in your worst nightmares. I have done things that would drive any sane person to a lump on the floor. I absolutely do not want you guys involved in any of it. I will not have you tarnish your names with my actions." Tony couldn't help the shiver that ran down his spine at the absolute malice in her voice.

 "You were under HYDRA's control then," Stephen tried, and Wong and Levi simply took another step back, like they knew something bad was about to happen.

 "That's the thing though," she chuckled, and it was so venomous, Tony was sure she would shift into a viper right there. "I wasn't."

 "What do you mean?" Carol inquired, as if scared of the answer.

 "The chair didn't work on me," Brea smiled, all sharp white teeth and fangs. "They tried, but electricity was just another form of torture, nothing more. My mind was my own. I assassinated for them. Willingly! Sure, they beat me, tortured me, raped me. But I gave in! Innocent people died, because I was too weak to last any longer!" She was yelling now, words tumbling forth like water through a broken dam. "I became the Winter Soldier's Silver Shadow. The Pet for their Asset! I became a monster. There were never any survivors, never any witnesses. I was a ghost story within the ghost story. I murdered every single one of my handlers and owners until they finally thought to put a muzzle on me. Lupo, at least he got to go into Cryo. I was locked in a cage beside his tank because freezing me would be too expensive. Fed and watered only when they remembered, just enough to keep up the strength so I could go back out when needed, when the Winter Soldier required assistance. And then I escaped, and Lupo was left behind. I helped him get out two years later, true, but it was two years too long. I thought he had died. And I will never, ever, go through that pain again. If my friends need help, you can damn well be sure I will help them. Because I was too late for Lupo, and never would I condemn anyone to his fate." She was breathing hard, fists clenched and ears lying flat against her skull, obviously angered at herself for revealing so much. 

Everyone was stunned dumb. Carol's face had gone white, and Stephen's hands picked up their trembling tenfold. Tony couldn't see Wong, but he himself felt sick. Levi wandered towards Brea and wrapped itself around her arm like a serpent. She looked down at it, and ran her fingers over its hem gently.

Tony pressed his fingers into his temples, remembering how far he would go and had gone to help Rhodey and Pepper. Rhodey, his platypus, who had always been there, through MIT, through Afghanistan, through the Civil War, where Tony couldn't help him back. Pepper, the light of his life, who put up with his partying, who helped with his arc, who should have never been caught in the middle during the Extremis incident. He looked over at the Shapeshifter he had somehow found, who had been through more than he could ever know. He knew her real age, but she was still fifteen biologically and probably mentally. 

 Against everything in his mind, screaming at him to keep her here and safe, he said, "At least take someone with you."

Carol looked at Tony, appalled, but Brea looked relieved. "Levi can come. But that's it. "

Stephen inhaled to probably demand someone else go, but Tony beat him to it. "Okay," he said simply. "But keep it with you at all times."

"Tony," Carol admonished. "You can't be serious."

 "It's not like we could keep her here anyway," he pointed out. 

 "He's right," Wong pitched in. "She's already built up a mental immunity to our magic."

 Stephen looked astonished. "How?"

 "Shapeshifter," Brea reminded them. "We adapt easily to our environments."

 "Of course you do," Stephen exhaled. "How long will you be gone?"

"Until late Friday afternoon. "

"I don't like this," Carol said.

"You don't have to," Brea retorted. "Look, if it makes you feel better, I can take a StarkPhone, and Tony and Friday can upload themselves to it."

 "How did you know-?" Tony asked, but decided that she probably smelled the Extremis on him or some other spysassin bullshit. "Fine. Carol, this is the best we're going to get. " 

Carol didn't look happy, but she swallowed her words. "Fine, but I still don't like it."

 Brea shifted her weight from foot to foot. "Phone?"

 "Hold on," Tony said digging through his pockets. "Here." He tossed her the device.

She caught it easily. "Thanks. I've really got to go." 

Stephen took a step forward. "Just be...be careful." He lifted a hand to put on her shoulder and she avoided it in the most peculiar way. Instead of slipping away, she backed up a little, and shrunk down to a five year old human. The cloak fashioned itself into a wrapping arm sleeve, looking fairly normal alongside the t-shirt and jeans Brea now wore. She had somehow found child sized combat boots or something, because the black shoes somehow also seemed at home in the outfit. In fact, Tony would go so far to call her cute. Her dirty blond hair was arranged into a messy fishtail French braid, curling around her ears. She looked so innocent, Tony had to remind himself twice that she could turn into a large wolf-tiger thing and tear him to shreds easily.

She acknowledged Stephen and turned around, dashing through a portal that Wong had already opened. It seemed to exit into thin air, and as she cleared the border of the golden ring, a pair of leathery wings sprouted from her back. Vivid oil slicked colors were barely visible before the portal snapped shut again. 

Tony blinked, unsure if he had really seen what he thought he did. It seemed he was the only one, as both Stephen and Carol were oblivious, and one could never really tell with Wong. He decided it was unlikely that Brea didn't have the wings he thought she did. After all, dragons don't exist, do they?

He pushed the overwhelming desire to find her as Wong returned to Kamar-Taj. Tony turned, Stephen on his heels, and checked in with Friday to ask where the others were. He gave her a virtual hug and made his way down to the common room after alerting the teens in the training. He was so not looking forward to explaining what had happened to the rest of the team. At least Carol and Stephen would help him...hopefully.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Italian and German should be correct, but I'm still learning the both of them so give me a shout if I messed something up.
> 
>  
> 
> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000


	10. Chapter 10

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The Rogues set their plan into action and Brea's adventures in Italy.

Sam was still doubtful about Natasha's plan, even though it has been three months. He was worried about the moral obligations that came along with Wanda's powers, or the lack thereof. He was concerned about Scott, who had disappeared. T'Challa assured them that Scott was okay, but Wanda read his mind. All the prince knew was that Scott up and left one day, and hadn't come back.

The team were all sitting on the couches in the living room watching some sort of documentary on the TV, when Wanda suddenly enveloped the room in a thick red mist.

"Wanda!" Clint shouted surprised. "A little warning next time!"

Wanda smiled sheepishly. "Sorry. Sometimes it's hard to keep them under control, especially without all of the training and practice to help wear them out."

Sending Clint a look, Steve rushed to assure her . "Don't worry, you can't be expected to have full control all of the time. We'll set up a full training room just for you when we get back, I'm sure Tony wouldn't mind. He has plenty of money for it anyway."

 Wanda have him a small grateful smile. "Thanks." Then she grimaced, and her powers flared again.

 "What's the matter?" Clint asked worriedly.

Wanda looked up, a disturbing glint in her eyes. "Our new friend is on the move."

 "What?" Steve asked. "How do you know?"

 Wanda waved her hand. "Feedback loop from my powers."

 Natasha seemed calculating. "This could be a good thing. She  must have run away from them, so she'll definitely join our side,  considering we have Bucky."

 "Wait, wait wait. I thought you said that the Avengers would do everything they could to hold onto her," Sam reminded them. 

 "They might consider letting her out under supervision," Wanda mused. "She can be very persuasive. It's kind of her thing, manipulating people. She has that sort of gift."

 Sam gave Steve an incredulous look. Was he really so blind as to see how much of this plan was based off of luck? Regardless, they didn't know this woman, and it had been years since Wanda had last seen her. What if she was wrong, and their mystery accomplice had changed?

Maybe Sam was just being paranoid. Steve was known all over the world as the man with a plan after all. He led his own team to victory several times throughout the last century. And now Sam was on his team. He should and would listen to Steve, unlike Stark who had gone crazy, siding with Ross and attacking Steve and Bucky. 

Sam felt a little bad for Stark. Poor man probably had loads of issues like PTSD and anxiety.  Perhaps Sam could have helped him, but from what he heard  and witnessed, Tony Stark did not ever want help nor would he follow any order requiring him to get it.

Giving a mental shrug, Sam tuned back into the conversation at hand.

 "What's her name?" Clint asked.

 "I don't know her real name, if she had one, but in HYDRA she was known as Silver Shadow ," Wanda offered. 

 "Did you say Silver Shadow?" Natasha clarified. "As in, the Asset's Pet?"

 "Is there something wrong?" Steve inquired, worried.

 "No, I just recognize her from my training," Natasha said. "She would just sit there while the Soldier and I fought, it was...for lack of a better term weird. It veered off of the ways of the Red Room. They never had me engage her in any kind of combat, although I thought it was because she was a valuable experiment."

 "What do you mean?" Sam pressed.

 "The Pet, or Silver Shadow, whatever you prefer, had some sort of predator complex, like she had a very fixed attention span. She wasn't completely human, although she looked it. I always thought she was some sort of mutant thing HYDRA scientists made."

 "I think she was born that way," Wanda said. "She never physically trained with anyone, besides the Asset. All of her and the Winter Soldier's sessions were private. Not even the handlers were allowed inside."

 "Really?" Steve wondered, frowning.

 "Yeah, and I'm pretty sure she's the reason that they decided to muzzle them both. They went through handlers like tissues, although most of them had died from stab wounds, so it was probably mostly the Asset's kills. Sometimes, though, there would be a mauling victim, like a bear or something got a hold of them. Those ones had to be blood tested to identify the body."

 Sam felt a chill run across his skin with those implications. "But she's good now, right? She's not that volatile anymore, if it even was her?" 

 "For sure, she defected several years ago. Supposedly something happened to her programming or whatever and she lost all skills." 

 "Even so, how will we find her?"  Natasha said.

 "Easy, HYDRA had these things that tracked her specific energy signature so we get one, and it should lead us right to her ." Wanda smirked. "Finding her isn't the hard part, it's capturing her. And we have Bucky, so it'll be fine."

"What are we waiting for then, let's go nab ourselves an assassin," Clint said getting up. 

 "Hold up, we still need Bucky," Steve said. 

 "You guys go get him," Wanda suggested. "Nat and I will meet you at that village just outside of the border with our weapons. There's a HYDRA safe house there from when they were obsessed with vibranium. They should still have some contingency plans left over as well."

 Steve nodded and spun in his heel, Clint and Sam scrabbling to keep up. He strode down the hall with a perfectly straight back, eyes focused on the door at the other side. When he reached for the handle, he found it locked. He backed up, causing Clint to have to jump out of the way, and took a running start at the door. The barrier stood no chance, bursting off its hinges into the guards behind it. 

Sam noticed that they were both already unconscious, silently thanking Wanda's foresight. The three men rushed down corridors, twisting and turning until they came up to a room occupied only by an empty cryo chamber. 

Steve, upon noticing the open latch, frantically turned in circles. "Where is he? Where is Bucky?"

There was a light knock on the door behind them. "Did you lose your broken white boy, Captain Rogers?"

 They all whipped around to see the princess leaning against the doorway, staring at them in distaste. 

Steve furrowed his brow in his classic disappointed look, albeit a bit more threatening than normal. "What did you do to him?"

Shuri rolled her eyes. "Relax, Colonizer, I was just fixing him."

 Steve crossed his arms. "Where is he then?"

 "I'm right here, punk." James Buchanan Barnes appeared just behind Shuri's shoulder. He bowed at the princess. "Thank you, your highness."

She indulged him with a smile. "They're all yours, Sergeant Barnes." 

When she left, Steve rushed over to Bucky. "Are you okay? Did they hurt you? They should have told me you were awake, I-"

 "Calm down, punk. I'm fine, the princess got rid of all of the triggers and have me a new arm." He lifted his gleaming vibranium limb. "And before you go off, I asked for you not to be alerted." Bucky patted him on the shoulder. Sam felt oddly out of place and awkward at the reunion.

 "What, why?" Steve asked,  giving Bucky his best puppy dog eyes.

To Bucky's credit, he didn't even hesitate. "I was a POW for seventy years, Stevie. Wanted to get my head on right without any outside influences before going through my memories."

 Steve frowned, but didn't push any further. "Do you have anything you might need?"

 "No, why?" Bucky inquired suspiciously. 

 "We're leaving. We'll meet Wanda and Natasha at a safe house and then we have to go pick someone up."

 "Who?" Sam was pretty sure Bucky wasn't as well as he was trying to seem to be, because there was a flash of some sort of panic across his face before he schooled it into the smirk he wore in all of his old pictures. Nevertheless, it wasn't his place to pry. 

 "Someone you knew with HYDRA? Gold Shadow, or something like that?"

 Bucky's face was immediately wiped of all emotion. "Silver Shadow?"

 "Yeah, her," Steve replied, oblivious. "Wanda said you guys were close."

 "We were," Bucky said absently, and Sam felt a pit or darkness settle in the bottom of his stomach.

*******

Brea was in Italy, when she got word. She had stopped by Germany to pick up her documents. If her supplier thought it was weird that she was fifteen years old (She only used her five year old form when it was needed, such as becoming lighter for flight), he didn't say anything. Simply adjusted the date of birth on all of her documents and sent her on her way. From there she flew to Italy (not by plane), where she met up with one of her mafia buddies. Said buddy called a friend in Wakanda, who promised to keep an eye on the Rogues. Apparently they weren't very popular, imagine that.

She also discovered that still nobody knew who she was, despite being in one of Stark's kids' videos. This led to Friday alerting her that the videos weren't posted until three months afterward, just in case anyone was having second thoughts. Good idea for the family of a celebrity.

Brea focused back on the task at hand. She was shadowing, pun unintended, some dude who tried to mug the head of the mafia's kids. Poor children were walking back from getting gelato, when a new guy in town, who apparently didn't know whose kids they were, attacked them. The two got free, but the man got a good punch in on the sons face which broke his nose, and attempted to assault the daughter. Well, he was about to learn his lesson. 

A hand that wronged, a hand that paid.

After dropping off the package, one of Brea's burner phones went off. It was a text from the Wakandan contact. The Rogues were on the move, and apparently looking for her. Great. 

Brea sighed and replied back, thanking the kind citizen for keeping her posted and offering them a favor whenever they required it. Then she destroyed the phone and, not wanting to cause any unnecessary danger to innocent civilians, sought out the nearest HYDRA base. Why draw out the inevitable?

Levi patted her hand, a silent reassurance that it would watch her back. It adjusted itself into a position that completely screamed vengeance. Abruptly, she realized she now had no voice of reason as the phone was safely tucked in a pocket, satisfactorily soundproofed and blind. The Rogues were so fucked.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Oh, look, the base is inhabited.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Not anymore.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

She had just finished locking the basement doors when she heard the shrill tones of a tracker and the scent of six sweaty bodies. Eww. She wrinkled her nose. They smelled like a HYDRA helicopter. Double eww.

Surprisingly, she felt no fear. It was like a mission. Her  surroundings didn't help to debunk that mindset. She ran over all of  her choices. Thinking back on what she still had to do to release the Avengers from Maximoffs control, she decided to go the information recovery route.

 She kept her teenage form, double checking that she was still wearing her catsuit. She adjusted it to allow Levi to comfortable settle as a sleeve. Damn, she was feeling bold today. Usually she would be halfway to the other side of the world by this point in time. Probably didn't help that she was running off of endorphins from the formerly living HYDRA agents. 

 _Pay attention!_ she chided herself. Voices were audible now. They were spreading out. Idiots. Lupo should be in charge. He knew better. 

Brea launched herself at the ceiling, making herself at home in the rafters. Just like she had done over a year ago in Siberia, she used some of her Saltumbra magic to blend in seamlessly in the darkened corner. Her silver eyes saw the entire room easily. She drew her bow, grip happily molding to her slim fingers. She waited silently, hearing the scraping of shoes on the concrete floor and the whispers of the team as they spoke into their coms. 

Finally, the archer walked in.

**Clint Barton, alias Hawkeye.**

**Threat Level: 4**

**Weapon(s) of choice: Bow, Trick Arrows**

**Abilities: Enhanced Vision, Excellent Aim, Above Average Hand-to-Hand combat training**

Excellent, her HYDRA training was making a comeback. Mark all threats. Analyze their strengths, never their weaknesses. Once wrong weakness evaluation, you were dead. Missing a strength had a better chance of survival.

Barton looked around the empty room, eyes passing right over her hiding spot. He did a double take, but she had already moved out of the way. After staring at the spot for a bit longer, he scanned the room one last time. Brea ducked behind the rafter, ears picking up what her vision couldn't. Eventually, he left the room. Brea dropped down silently behind him, following him back to the group from the shadows.

They were all clustered together in the middle of the entry hall, messing around with the tracking device. Barton immediately strode over to give his opinion. Information about the others was filed away as she watched.

  **Steve Rogers, alias Captain America**

**Threat Level: 6**

**Weapon(s) of Choice: Vibranium Shield, Hand-to-Hand Combat**

**Abilities: Super Strength, Increased Stamina, Sub-par Hand-to-Hand combat training, Enhanced Healing and Sensory Input**

 

**Yelena Alianova Solanova, alias Black Widow, Natasha Romanoff, Natalie Rushman, Natalia Romanova, +27 more**

**Threat Level: 7**

**Weapon(s) of Choice: Knives, Guns, Widow Bites (wrist worn tasers), Hand-to-Hand Combat, Mixed Martial Arts**

**Abilities: Enhanced Reaction Time, Increased Stamina, Extensive Hand-to-Hand Combat and Mixed Martial Arts training***

***See Red Room Training Program**

 

**Sam Wilson, alias Falcon**

**Threat Level: 3**

**Weapon(s) of Choice: Flying Suit with Wings, Guns**

**Abilities: Pilot to Wing Suit, Military Grade Hand-to-Hand combat training**

 

**Wanda Maximoff, alias Scarlet Witch**

**Threat Level: 6**

**Weapon(s) of Choice: Magic**

**Abilities: Mental Manipulation* Telekinesis****

***As of 20/01/14 Pet is immune**

****As of 27/01/14 Pet is resistant**

 

 **The Asset, alias The Winter Soldier, Fist of HYDRA,** **~~Lupo~~ **

**Threat Level: 9**

**Weapon(s) of Choice: Sniper Rifle, Hand gun, Knives, Katanas, Bow, Guillotine, Metal Arm, Bow Staff, Hand-to-Hand Combat, Mixed Martial Arts, +138 more**

**Abilities: Enhanced Healing and Reaction Time, Super Strength, Increased Stamina, Extensive Hand-to-Hand Combat and Mixed Martial Arts training, +9 more**

**_Alert:_ Primary Mission Pet: Protect Asset at All Costs***

*** ~~Override Code: Omega, Charlie, Zoo, Glass, Eye, White, Sentry, Wombat, Epsilon~~**

 

She recognized the excess information at the end of Lupo's assessment as a piece of failed programming from her Pet days. At least the ability to compartmentalize memories was also programmed into her, otherwise she would have never remembered her immunity to the Witch's magic, especially after all of the failed Chair wiping attempts.

All of them looked like shit, excepting Yelena. Rogers had longer hair and a scraggly beard, his uniform slightly tattered and stained. Barton still had his crew cut, but a five o'clock shadow peeked through on his face. His uniform too, had seen better days. Wilson's hair was cut short, but his eyes were dull and cheeks gaunt. Maximoff was still wearing her stupid red leather uniform, frizzy hair from too much heat tools making her look like the Witch she was. Yelena was standing at a distance, normally red hair bleached blond, a leather body suit similar to Brea's appearing impeccable.

Lupo glanced up and looked straight at her. She smothered a grin. He looked better than he had in a long time, long hair pulled back into a pony tail, and a stubble adorning his face. His eyes, which were usually empty and hollow, we're swimming with emotions, albeit not fully positive ones. He cocked his head, as if to ask what was going on. 

Brea nodded at the Witch, and lifted her arm showing off Levi, who gave a tiny wave. His eyes widened in understanding, about what exactly the others wanted with her. He stared at Rogers like he had never seen him before, which granted, he probably hadn't ever seen this side of the man. As if on cue, a loud high pitched noise penetrated the air, and Brea clapped her hands over her ears. Lupo and Rogers did the same.

 "Shut it off!" Rogers ordered. Wilson fumbled with the device, pressing buttons at random, until the dog whistle cut out. All three of them slouched in relief. "Thanks."

"What was it?" Barton asked.

"Some sort of enhanced hearing thing," he said, tugging his ear lobe. "Apparently Silver has that."

 Lupo glanced at her as if to say,  _I have to put up with these idiots._  Brea shrugged, and he made a pointed look around the room.  _Where are all of the HYDRA agents?_

Brea pushed her shoulders back, and ever so slightly moved her foot.  _Don't look in the basement._

He tilted his head forward in recognition, the corner of his mouth twitching up as a smile. She took in the group one last time. Her hypothesis was unfortunately confirmed. She jerked her chin, a silent invitation to follow. Lupo looked at the group.

"I'm going to go look around again, see if we missed anything."

"Okay, Buck," Rogers said frowning at the brunette. "But be careful and hurry back. And take Tasha with you."

Lupo didn't miss a beat. "Nah, it's fine. You should keep her, she's probably the only one who could figure that thing out. " He left before Rogers could say anything else.

"Buck?" Brea teased as soon as they were out of ear shot.

"I used to be Bucky," Lupo said with a conflicted grimace. "James Buchanan "Bucky" Barnes."

Brea froze. "You can remember?"

"Yeah, Foxy, I can remember. The princess of Wakanda helped get rid of all of the triggers. I'm HYDRA free now. " He smirked, but Brea could see right through it.

"You can recall every single mission." She didn't phrase it as a question , but he answered anyway. 

 "Yeah," he breathed out. "A side effect of the serum is a perfect memory." 

 Brea paused for a second, then launched herself at him in a hug. "Oh, Lupo, I'm so sorry. I should have never left you behind. I could have gotten you out sooner. I should have done more-"

 "Hey now, stop it," Lupo said firmly. "It was my choice. You helped me escape two years later, did you not?"

 "Yes, but-"

 "Two years is nothing compared to seventy. I was in Cryo for at least eight months of that time. I'm fine." He pulled her tighter into his chest. "Besides, you never got any memories erased by the Chair. I know you can recollect with almost eighty percent accuracy. What I don't understand is how you've dealt with all of this for the last half century. "

"You helped a lot, even if you were in the tank. I'm sorry I couldn't help-"

"Little sister, why don't you tell me why you are here now, in the present, instead of worrying over the past, " he suggested, rubbing the back of her neck.

Brea let out a wobbly laugh. "Okay. The Witch fucked with the New Avenger's minds. "

"I got that," Lupo chuckled. "But how, and why?"

"From what I managed to piece together," she said, not backing out of the hug. "Rogers and co. are mad that Stark hasn't gotten them pardoned yet, and that he replaced them with the New Avengers."

 "We went against 117 countries," Lupo said. "We should be in prison."

 Brea acknowledged the 'we' but chose not to comment on it. "And some were, given it was without trial and in inhumane conditions."

 "What does this have to do with anything?"

 "Well, like I said, they want to go back to the US. So, when Maximoff undoubtedly felt I was alive, I think they thought that I would play double agent for them, because they had you."

 "So what happened?"

 "Yelena and the Witch broke into the Compound and placed an obsession spell over the residents."

 "Of course they did," Lupo sighed. 

 Brea nodded. "They missed one, but I'll get to him in a second. So I was in New York, evading some Hunters, when some of the Avengers showed up. "

"Wait, you  _still_ have Hunters on your tail?" he interrupted.

"That's beside the point. I ended up killing the group, but I got injured in the process. Iron Man and Dr. Strange captured me, and with a very morally grey month of nonconsensual boarding, I was accepted into the pack. "

Lupo huffed a laugh, an action she felt, more than heard. "Only you, Foxy, would call being kidnapped and imprisoned 'morally grey '."

"Lupo, HYDRA makes everything seem morally grey. "

"...Touché."

"So anywho, I was accepted in to the pack, and noticed they were really creepy and obsessive, so I kept my distance. Then Wong, the one who's not been affected by Witchey Bitchey and the one without stalker tendencies, told me that they were probably mind raped and behold, they were."  

"Why are you helping them though?" Lupo asked. 

"Because I could have killed Maximoff, but I didn't. And now, all of this falls on me. "

"Little sister, look at me." He tilted her chin up, blue-grey eyes piercing her silver ones. "You didn't know this would happen. You didn't know it would come this far. There is no way you could have ever predicted this outcome. You shouldn't blame yourself."

Brea didn't reply, which was answer enough. He squeezed her close and kissed the top of her head. She finally allowed herself to break down, for the first time in two years. 

"I just, I don't know what to do, big brother," she admitted chocking on a sob. "I feel like everything just has a domino effect, and it focuses on anyone close to me. "

"You don't have to do anything," he said. "Do you like the Avengers?"

"What?" She asked. Levi began wiping her tears away as she pulled her head back to look at Lupo. She patted it gently, a little guilty she forgot it was there.

"I asked if you like the Avengers," Lupo repeated.

"Yeah, yeah I do," she said.

"Then do what you want to help them. If you care for them, then don't worry about anyone else. Just focus on what you will do for them. If you like them, then I will do whatever you need me to do, so you can help the pack you have joined. "

Brea felt herself warm a bit at the affection in his voice. "I love you, big brother."

"I love you too, little sister. Even though you're a tiny little shrimp."

 "Not short," she muttered. "You're just a freakishly tall super soldier."

 "Mhhmm, how tall are you?"

 "Five foot one and five eights," she declared proudly.

"Like a little fox," Lupo mused. "Thin, and smaller than most predators, but amazing swift and deadly when hunting."

"What about you. Lupo, like a large wolf, stronger than most people give credit for, going long distances to take down their prey."

"The Fox and the Wolf, what a team, huh?"

Brea hummed. Then she realized: "Hey, you remember Charles Xavier, right?"

"Yeah," Lupo said, snapping his fingers. "New Zealand?"

 "And Tokyo," Brea reminded. Then after a pause, "Canada." 

 "Ouch," Lupo said with a wince. "Canada." 

 Brea shivered. "He still remembers Canada."

 "How could he forget Canada?" Lupo exclaimed.

"That's what he said!" Brea said.

"Okay, off topic. Why did you ask me about him?"

"He and Wong are going to try to work together to remove the Witch's influence from the Avengers minds."

"That actually might work," Lupo murmured. "You want me to stick with Steve, and keep an eye out?"

"Only if you want," Brea explained. "But be warned, Maximoff is not influencing them, all actions are their own."

"I was afraid of that," he sighed. "I'll keep an eye on them."

"Bucky!" Came a shout from down the hall.

"That's my cue," Brea said. She tightened her grip for a moment, then unwrapped her arms. "Stay safe, big brother."

"You too, little sister."

Brea gave Lupo a sloppy salute and turned into the shadows as he walked down the hall where Steve was waiting. She slipped out of the base through a window and began her journey back to the safe house. She had a long weekend ahead of her.

 

Upon reaching her small apartment, Brea collapsed into a fitful sleep, full of old memories about her HYDRA days. She woke up about two hours later, bathed in sweat. Eventually she decided She wouldn't be able to sleep any further and made her way into the small bathroom.

After taking a long shower, Brea put on the outfit she had bought earlier. A pair of black skinny jeans, with a bright red shirt and white converses. She pulled on the shoes, and pushed her arms through the sleeves of- Levi the black leather jacket?

 "How did you-?" She asked. "That is a whole completely different fabric and texture, not to mention the zippers." Levi just flipped its collar vaguely. Brea decided it wasn't important enough to argue about. 

She pulled her hair back into a sleek ponytail and drew on some winged eyeliner, cursing when she had to redo it twice. She shifted her eyes to a hazel, mascara and a deep red lipstick completing her disguise.

Checking her reflection in the mirror, she was proud to say she looked like a true Italian teen. With her StarkPhone turned on in her hand, nobody would give her a second glance. She read the time. Eleven twenty six. Not even midnight yet, perfect. Many shops would still be open.

Brea left the apartment, making her way down to the Corso. She stopped by a pizza bar at the corner of the block, and grabbed a coke and mini pizza. She was enjoying a little more time to herself before she had to go back. The street was crowded, but not as bad as New York usually was.

Going with the flow of the wave of people, Brea browsed through the shop windows. Fall fashion was in full swing, mannequins dressed up in black athletic pants with red stripes down the side, or Letterman jackets. All of the females ones wore high heels or wedges, so tall Brea didn't know how one could even lie down with them on. As she considered a pair of brown boots, her phone buzzed. 

 _**qween added you to the group chat:** _ **i wish for death**

She smiled, already knowing who it was. 

 **qween:** Brea! 

 **qween:** Where are you?

 **qween:** I need your help!

 **Harley Davidson:** No she doesn't

 **spinners:** She's fine, we're all fine

 **all cooped up:** You can stay where you are

 **flower crown:** They lie. We are outnumbered

 **Gold is overrated:** What happened? 

 **qween:** Chaos. Chaos happened.

 **qween:** All I know now is death and destruction. Where are you?

 **all cooped up:** You don't have to answer that. Everything's actually fine

 **flower crown:** Everything is not fine. Kamala and I are trapped

 **Gold is overrated:** I'm in Italy. I'll be back tomorrow.

 **Harley Davidson:**   Oh yeah i forgot

 **spinners:** cool

 **spinners:** Hey kam. Where are you and Lila? Doctor dad is looking for you

 **flower crown:** Like she would tell you

 **spinners:** worth a shot

 **all cooped up:** we could ask Friday

 **Harley Davidson:** good idea

 _**Harley Davidson added My Girl to the group chat:** _ **i wish for death**

 **qween:** shhhhh

 **My Girl:** What's up?

 **all cooped up:** do you know where kam and Lila are?

 **flower crown:** don't tell them

 **spinners:** Fri, please

 **qween:** don't

 **Harley Davidson:** i knew JARVIS, don't think i can't hack you

 **My Girl:** I declare neutrality.

 **Gold is overrated:** Nice.

 **Harley Davidson:** did anyone else notice that our texting was very grammar proper with capitals and punctuation when Brea was added and then we all just gave up

 **flower crown:** yeh

 **qween:** a better question would be who didn't notice

 **spinners:** Harley, obviously

 **Harley Davidson:** I came here to have a good time and I'm honestly feeling so attacked right now

Brea glanced up, feeling something was wrong. She zoned in on two men leaning against a building, seemingly doing nothing. No phones, no conversation, no distraction. Pretending to check her texts, she got up and started making her way to a gelato shop. The two waited a moment as to not bring immediate attention, then began tailing her. Brea smirked.

 **Gold is overrated:** I'll actually be joining you guys sooner than expected

She reached the shop, disappearing into a crowd of teens. She used her stalkers temporary blind spot to turn into a thin alley.

 _**New chat with:** _ **Wong**

 **Brea:** Can you get me a portal to the compound? I'll have Friday send you my location.

_New Message from: i wish for death_

_qween: you okay?_

**Wong:**  When?

_New Messages from: i wish for death_

_all cooped up: is she ded?_

_flower crown: god i hope not_

**Brea:** Preferably now.

Levi shifted on her shoulders. She glanced at the mouth of the alley, noticing the men from before finally found her. The shorter grinned eerily at her.

"Silver," he greeted in heavily accented English. "We look for you for long time."

"That's nice," Brea said flippantly. "Not creepy at all."

 Shorty sneered. "You pay for what you do to Michele men."

 "Michele's men deserved what they got. Y'all are a tiny little regional group, trying to overthrow the Italia wide mafia. There is a system, you keep out of Giada's business, she stays out of yours. You didn't listen to your warnings, now look where you are." She shrugged. "Keep to yourselves and you'll end up just fine."

The taller man pulled out a large knife. "No more speak."

"Levi, ask Wong what's taking him so long!" Brea whispered harshly, shoving her phone into the jacket pocket. She slid two blades from up her sleeves into her hands, just as the men rushed her. 

Using their momentum against them, she slipped between the two, blocking their daggers at the same time. They spun around, and Shorty lunged at her left. Their blades clashed with experience. She kicked out with her foot at his knee, not wanting to kill him. Tall and Dark saw an opening, and tried to land a hit on her left. She stopped his knife, and slid hers down to his hilt, cutting the knuckles of his hand. 

Meanwhile, Shorty was doing his best to stab her arm. He was just about to try something even more risky, when Levi grabbed the man's wrist and twisted. A flash of surprise crossed his face, just before Brea punched him in the face, effectively knocking him out with a concussion. Amnesia would be a bitch, but served him right.

Slenderman attacked even more ferociously. She smashed the butt of her grip into his skull, but he simply shook it off. This would be so much easier is she wasn't going for no casualties. She punched him in the stomach, and pushed his head into the brick wall. He placed his hands on the wall, and flew towards her again. She jumped up and pulled herself into his shoulders. He bucked, trying to get her off.

"Go to sleep please," she said, squeezing his throat. "Beddy bye, time for sleep. Sleepy time. Sleepsleepsleepsleep," She gave him one last punch in the temple, and he finally collapsed. "Good boy."

And then, because she was just a vengeful little shit at heart, she spit on him.

Someone clearing their throat drew her attention. She looked up, and realized Wong must have finally gotten the portal open. Gathered around the other side, watching her with morbid fascination was Tony, Stephen, Harley, Kamala, Peter, Hope, Rhodey and Scott. Cursing her obviousness, she cringed. Had it been another attacker, she could be so dead right now.

"Crap." Brea blushed, tucking away the knives. She tried for an innocent smile." Umm, hey? How long have you been standing there?"

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm pretty sure all of the group chat names are self explanatory, but just him case:
> 
> Gold is overrated -Brea  
> qween -Kamala  
> flower crown -Lila  
> Harley Davidson -Harley  
> spinners- Peter  
> All cooped up- Cooper  
> My Girl - Friday


	11. Chapter 11

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> It all comes crumbling down.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Trigger warnings for this chapter:  
> Suicidal thoughts and conversations  
> Panic attacks
> 
> Also, I really suck at plot.

Stephen was bored. It was Tony’s meal night, and the lasagna was already in the oven. Now Tony was cutting up vegetables, talking about some sort of engineering idea with Scott. Hope had apparently ripped the man a new one, lawyers waiting on a holographic conference call and everything. Scott accepted his fate with open arms, fully expecting to go back to jail for breaking his parole with just one request to see his daughter. Hope demanded to know the man’s reasoning, which happened to stem almost fully from Hank Pym’s ‘All Starks Are Evil’ rants. Stephen offered to push the man into another dimension, but Hope refused kindly saying she would take care of it. And that she did.

Speak of the devil, Hope and Rhodes came in just as the zucchini Tony was boiling finished. He took the pot off of the flame and drained the water. Placing it to the side, he dried his hands on a towel.

”What’s up?” Tony began digging through the many cabinets trying to find the cutting boards. 

“I can’t find the kids, and I’m wondering if I should start worrying,” Hope said. “Third drawer to the left of the fridge.” 

“Thanks,” he placed the bright red mat on the counter, and his eyes flashed orange for a second as he accessed Extremis, probably checking the Compound’s security system. “Peter, Harley, and Cooper are running around the halls looking for Kamala and Lila, who are in the vents. Brea’s phone is still in Italy, so I’m assuming that’s where she is.”

”I can’t believe you let her just leave.” Rhodey shook his head. “Like, completely by herself.”

”She had Levi, and Friday is tracking her phone,” Tony said, waving the knife he was washing around. “I don’t like it, but she and Wong insisted. And we can’t hold onto her anymore. Apparently she’s built up an immunity to Stephen’s magic.”

”That’s possible?” Scott asked, turning to Stephen.

”Obviously,” the sorcerer replied dryly. “I asked Wong about it, but he didn’t tell me much. Only that she has some magic of her own, just more focused than ours.”

”Focused how?” 

“Most if not all of it is channeled into shifting. Think of her abilities as a more advanced Cloak of Levitation.”

”Don’t know what that is,” Scott admitted.

”You’ll see what I mean at some point in time,” Stephen waved his hand cryptically.

“Stephen,” Tony whined, breaking the silence that had settle over the room. “The bread crumbs.”

”The what?” Hope startled.

”The bread crumbs,” Tony clarified unhelpfully. “The zucchini is ruined, and it’s all Stephen’s fault.”

Rhodey rolled his eyes. “Actually, it was me this time.”

Tony gasped, clutching his arc reactor dramatically. “My honey-bear? How could you betray me like this?” 

Poor Scott just looked confused. “What does that mean? Is it some kind of code? Bread crumbs?”

Stephen walked over to where his boyfriend was draped over the counter, fake sobs racking his frame. “Rhodes put the bread crumbs on the top shelf, and the genius engineer here is too short to reach them.” He reached up and pulled a tin out of the cabinet over Tony’s head.

”Not short,” Tony grumbled, before standing up straight again with a mischievous glint in his eye. “Besides, I didn’t hear you complaining when we-“ He was abruptly cut off by Stephen clapping his hand over his mouth. Tony, being Tony, licked his palm.

”You are such a child,” Stephen said, disgusted as he snatched his hand back and wiped it on his pants. “Here.”

Tony stuck his tongue out, and grabbed the offered container of bread crumbs. “Still not short.”

“Thanks, I did not need to hear about my best friend’s sex life,” Rhodey told the magician seriously. “I spent enough of MIT dragging his naked and drunk ass back to our dorms.”

”What did we just walk into?” Harley asked, entering the kitchen with a disturbed look on his face. Peter was close behind him, hair all messed up and curly from running around.

”Nothing, don’t worry about it,” Tony quickly answered, the epitome of secrecy.

”Have you guys seen Kamala?” Peter offered, ignoring the billionaire. “Friday is playing Switzerland again.”

”In the vents,” Stephen said offhandedly, watching Tony scoop the insides of the zucchini out and putting it in a bowl with the bread crumbs and some parmesan. 

There was a loud thud from the ceiling, and a large mass tumbled haphazardly to the floor. Kamala popped up a second later. “You weren’t supposed to tell!”

”Darn,” the sorcerer drawled. At a collective ding, all three kids looked at their phones. 

“What does that mean?” Harley exclaimed. “How soon?” Peter and Kam shrugged.

”I’m almost scared to ask,” Scott told the room. “But what happened?”

As if on cue, a puff of golden sparks erupted an a portal was opened in the middle of the room. They all gathered around, worried when they saw the alleyway on the other side. Three figures were engaged in a deadly dance, knives catching the beams of moonlight that filtered through the clouds. The smallest one was obviously more experienced, but seemed to be holding back. She, it was a she Stephen could see that now, wore black pants with a bright red shirt and leather jacket. Said leather jacket somehow caught a blow aimed at the girl and she spun around without missing a beat, punching him the man the face, causing him to fall to the ground limp and unconscious.

The tallest of the three apparently didn’t like having his comrade taken down in such a way, and began assulting more viciously. Stephen noticed his knuckles had been cut and blood was trailing down his knife, giving his blade a terrifying breath. The girl hit him over the head with the butt of her blade, but it didn’t even seem to faze him. Nevertheless, the girl was already on top of the situation, smashing his skull into the wall of the alley. The only sign the man gave that he registered the blow was a small grunt, and he shoved off of the brick. The two traded blows once more before the girl launched herself impossibly high, which allowed her to wrap her thighs around his neck. The move was frighteningly similar to the Black Widow’s signature attack, but different all at the same time. 

She squeezed her knees together, blocking his air flow. The man grabbed her wrist, trying to pull her off, but she twisted out of his grip.

“Go to sleep, please,” _Brea_ muttered, frustration clear in her voice. “Beddy-bye, time for sleep. Sleepy time. Sleepsleepsleepsleep.” She gave him one last satisfying hit to the temple, and he finally collapsed. She flipped off of the man, landing over him like a cat. Then, she spit on him.

Tony cleared his throat. Brea jerked around, finally taking sight of the portal. 

“Crap,” she murmured, hiding the knives back wherever she had stored them. Then louder:”Umm, hey? How long have you been standing there?”

All three kids and Scott snorted. Hope seemed horrified, Rhodey astonished, and Tony morbidly curious. Stephen himself felt smugly proud, albeit tainted with an overwhelming protectiveness. Brea slinked through the portal, eyes automatically taking in the room and any possible threats around her. As soon as she was through, she waved a hand and the golden sparks shut behind her. Slipping the leather jacket off, Brea rubbed at her arms, causing Stephen to realize that the air coming the the portal had been pretty chilly. She seemed so small and timid, as if she didn’t just take down two fully grown, probably top mafia hit men.

”Thought you wouldn’t be back until Friday,” Tony started.

She shrugged and let go of her leather jacket, who promptly turned into Levi the Cloak. Levi rushed over to Stephen and settled around his shoulders. “Got done early.”

Stephen studied her, but he knew he wouldn’t see anything he wanted to. “Is your problem sorted out?”

”Not quite, but I have a meeting tomorrow to hopefully finish working on it.” She turned to the sink and began washing her hands. She didn’t seem bothered that everyone was staring at her.

“So... who were those men?” Rhodey inquired, leaning against the counter casually. Brea’s eyes flickered up to him briefly, hiding something the sorcerer couldn’t identify. She then focused on drying her hands.

”Just some dudes. They weren’t very happy with my actions from a couple years ago, and somehow found me while I was window shopping and eating pizza.”

Scott shook himself, looking like a wide-eyed curious puppy. “I have a lot of questions about that last sentence alone. What happened a couple years ago? You eat pizza? How did they know you were in Europe or whatever? Shapeshifters window shop? Shapeshifters have the money to window shop? Why weren’t they happy?”

Brea eyed him as he took a deep breath, but once again Stephen couldn’t tell what was going on in her head. “To answer your questions in order: confidential; yes; I don’t know; yes; yes, I stole it from HYDRA; and once again confidential.”

”That’s cool and all, but how’d you get back?” Harley accused.

”I texted Wong and he opened a portal here.”

”That’s what the text meant,” Peter said, sounding enlightened. “Wait, you stole money from HYDRA?”

”Technically,” Brea corrected. “I didn’t. A friend did. Then he transferred the account over to me.”

“Well, thank God you’re back. Lila and I have been on the defensive the whole time you’ve been gone,” Kamala groaned. “C’mon guys, let’s go find Coop and Lila.” She, Harley, and Peter left, dashing out of the room.

“Hold up,” Rhodes interrupted, raising his hand up towards the Shifter. “Don’t think I didn’t notice that you didn’t answer my question. Who were those men, and why were they attacking you?”

“Some dudes from another mafia. There’s a feud between them and a contact of mine. I help her out from time to time, and they don’t like that. It’s fine. I got it under control.”

Hope’s horrified look finally smoothed over, leaving her seem a little angry but more wary. “Why didn’t you call us for help?”

Brea gave a self deprecating smile. “Like I told Carol, Tony, and Stephen. I don’t want you guys’ reputations ruined by my actions. Don’t worry about it, I had it all handled. Plus, Levi was my backup.”

”Bullshit. We need to talk about this,” Rhodes said. “No offense to the Cloak, but it is not proper backup.”

”No, we don’t,” Brea snapped with a growl. “And we will not.” Stephen was taken aback. This was the first time she had threatened them directly when they weren’t physically confronting her. There was the few times when they held her in the Hulk room, and the time just before she left, but both of those were threatening her autonomy. He felt a flash of anger and guilt at himself for what he did to her, surprising him, and then it was gone, soothed by something deep in his mind. He did what he had to do to keep her safe.

”Yes, we do, Brea,” Hope implored. “It’s not healthy for you to do this all on your own.”

”No,” Brea snarled once again. Her eyes switched back to their silver color, and her fists clenched like she was holding back claws. She bared her teeth which were those of a predators, gleaming and sharp and ready to tear you to pieces. “We will not. I am fine. There’s nothing to talk about.”

”You just about got mugged in an alley,” Tony pointed out. “I wouldn’t consider that fine.” Her eyes flashed to his, and he flinched, looking away.

”Too bad,” she said. Stephen noticed how tight her muscles were coiling, ready for a fight. She had already partially morphed into another form, her long tail swishing agitatedly behind her and her ears lying flat against her scalp. He stepped in before the situation could get anymore out of control.

“Okay. We don’t have to talk,” the magician soothed. She looked at him distrustfully for a moment. He nodded his head. “Why don’t you go take a shower. It was freezing wherever you were and you’re still shivering.” Brea relaxed minutely, although she was watching Stephen carefully.

”Yeah, not happening,” Rhodes  butted in again. “We need to know what’s going on.”

”No we don’t,” Stephen said, keeping eye contact with the girl. “At least, not right now.”

”Fine.” Tony said. “But this conversation is not over.”

Brea nodded tensely, and rushed out of the room taking her cue to leave. As she crossed the threshold to the hall, Stephen just hoped he wouldn’t come to regret it.

 

 

 

Dinner had been a quiet event of filling the others in on what happened. They asked Friday to alert Brea that the meal was ready, but were informed that she was asleep. Stephen accepted the information with a shrug, figuring that she probably had a long day and was exhausted from her fight. He put her plate in the fridge and left a note on her door asking her to eat when she could.

That night, he lay in bed next to a snoring Tony, trying to figure out what felt so wrong with his mind. It had something to do with the Shapeshifter, but he couldn’t quite put his finger on it. Checking the time, he groaned. 2:24. He was just about to get up, when Friday quietly told him that Brea had left her room, and had disappeared into the tree line outside. She hadn’t left the property yet, but she had been gone for a while. 

Stephen figured that he might as well do something if he wasn’t going to sleep, and made his way down to the communal kitchen. The kettle was filled with water and placed on top of the stove to start tea, when the teenager finally stumbled into the room. Her eyes were wide and she was wearing an oversized blue hoodie that Stephen didn’t recognize. The sleeves covered her hands like sweater paws and the hem fell down to her knees. She focused on him without seeing, trembling from something unknown. He watched her nervously, wondering what he should do.

”Do you want some tea?” He finally asked. 

It was like his words broke a dam. Brea flinched hard and took a step back, becoming unsteady on her feet while the phone in her hand clattered as it hit the floor. Falling to the ground, she scrambled towards the wall behind her until she was pressed up against it. Her fingers began to claw at her neck, trying to remove something that wasn’t there. She began muttering in another language, shaking her head violently and eyes brimming with tears. 

Stephen recognized the signs of a panic attack almost as soon as they started. He rushed over, cursing when his movement made her jerk back. She curled her legs up close to her chest. Strange ran over everything he knew in his head about attacks like these, drawing some extra information from his and Tony’s own experiences.

”Hey, Brea,” he began softly. “I need you to calm down. Can you breathe with me? Come on, in and out. In and out. In and out.” He reached out to move her hand to his chest, when Levi appeared out of nowhere, blocking his path. It shook its collar, reminding Stephen that touch was not a good idea. Then, Brea switched over to English.

”No,” she muttered. “Won’t do it...Lupo.....stay. Don’t want to....can’t make me. Not...cage.....again.....no. You’ll be killed......I.....helped. Brother......no don’t.” Then her voice switched over to something cold. “Mission report: Target eliminated. No witnesses. Collateral damage: two adults, three children. Identified as Target wife, brother, and offspring.”

Stephen noticed a deep anger within himself as he understood that she was remembering HYDRA. He felt sickened and wished that she had remained speaking in the first dialect, but pushed his feelings away. He was here to be a doctor and help. “Brea, I need you to focus. Breathe. In, out. In, out. In, out.”

It seemed like she couldn’t hear him. “Pet: Primary Mission, protect Asset.” Then quieter. “Subroutine, Asset, alias The Winter Soldier. Add alias: Lupo.”

He was steadily becoming more and more worried. “Brea. C’mon, In, out. Friday, call Hope or Jessica or one of the girls. In, out, you’ve got it.”

”You can’t go back. They will kill you.” The clarity of the words scared Stephen the most. “No big brother, please. I can’t do this without you.” A pause. “Override code: Omega, Charlie, Zoo, Glass, Eye, White, Sentry, Wombat, Epsilon accepted. Primary mission, overridden. Hail HYDRA.” Tears were streaming down her face, empty eyes seeing only something she knew. 

“In and out. In and out,” Stephen repeated like a mantra. “In and out. Brea, come back to me.” Against all odds, her breathing finally began a more regular cycle. “That’s it. Good job. In and out.” She reached out and clutched his sleeve like a life line. Her short gasps were evening out into longer and longer inhales. “That’s right. In and out.” He placed one of the hands on his sleeve to his chest, exaggerating his breathing. “Look, follow me. Listen to my breathing.” 

He didn’t know how long they sat there before Brea’s eyes drifted down from where she was staring off into space. The settled on him and seemed to start taking in his appearance. She flinched violently, coming back to herself all at once. A terrified look crossed her face, then she threw herself at him, wrapping her arms around his neck in a tight embrace. It would have been sweet, if it weren’t what she had started saying.

”Kill me, please,” she begged. “Kill me. I can’t do this anymore. Please, just put an end to my life. I shouldn’t be here, it should be Lupo. I want to die, just kill me.” At the last few words, she broke down in sobs again. Stephen adjusted himself so he was sitting against the wall and pulled her into his arms. She curled up into a ball, not stopping her tears. Hope and Carol dashed into the room at that second, worried eyes immediately honing in on the pair. He waved at them, trying to convey that he didn’t know what to do. Luckily, the two understood and they approached cautiously, stopping a fair distance away.

”Hey,” Stephen said, still holding on to the girl. “I’m not going to hurt you.”

Brea looked up at him. “Why?” She sounded so lost, so in pieces, that he felt his heart break.

”Because you don’t deserve it, and you don’t deserve to die,” he replied as calmly as he could. He exchanged helpless looks with the women.

“Yes, I do,” she murmured. “I’m a monster. Lupo’s the one who should be free. Instead he’s watching over the very person who tried to kill us! He called me, he’s worried about me even though he’s with the murderer.”

Stephen couldn’t help that his gaze flickered over to the phone on the ground. Such a small seemingly harmless thing could bring so much grief, and he cursed the person on the other end that caused it. He rubbed Brea’s back awkwardly. “If Lupo is there voluntarily, then it’s his choice to do what he’s doing. You shouldn’t feel responsible for his decisions.”

Brea didn’t reply, just began trembling even worse than before. They all sat in silence for a moment, before the kettle began whistling. 

“I’ll get it,” Hope whispered. She stood up and made her way to the stove. Carol cleared her throat.

”I’m going to go help,” she said. Stephen nodded and he and Brea were alone on the floor once more. 

“Darling, come on, look at me,” he urged quietly. She lifted her gaze and winced when she met his eyes, looking away. From the way Levi adjusted its language, Stephen could guess that she was baring her throat in submission. “None of that. I don’t want anything. Do you want to tell me what you saw?”

She drew herself tighter together, looking for all of the world like the scared child she probably had been when she was orphaned, shaking her head. 

“Okay,” Stephen answered immediately. “That’s fine. Do you want to talk about what set you off?” There was such a long pause that he became nervous and blurted out,”You don’t have to. It just might be better so we know what triggers to avoid in the future.”

Brea adjusted her position a little. Finally, she replied, albeit a bit shaky. “Long day...met someone who brought up bad memories.”

Stephen hummed, going through the list of questions he had asked Tony when he first discovered Tony’s PTSD. “When was the last time you slept?” Brea opened her mouth to reply, but Stephen ammended his first question to quickly. “Through the entire night, not a nap like earlier today.”

She was silent for a bit, and he felt a black hole settle in his stomach. After what he considered way too long, she answered. “I don’t remember. Before HYDRA at least.”

It took all of his self control to prevent himself from having an outburst. “Alright. This incident was a long time coming wasn’t it?” When she nodded, “How long?”

”Two years.”

Carol gasped from the kitchen and he ignored her. “You’ve been holding this off for two years?”

She made an affirmative gesture and did her bared-throat-submission thing again, like she thought she would get punished. 

“Brea, we’re not going to hurt you for admitting something like that,” Stephen chided. “In fact, thank you for telling me.” She was still not looking at him, instead examining her hands. “Hey, it’s alright. You can trust me.” He covered her hands with with his own, white scars clearly visible in the dim light of the room.

She searched his face for something, apparently relieved with what she found. Even so, she shook her head. “I can’t.”

”Why not?” he asked, understanding that she had major trust issues, but wanting to see if there was a reason.

”Because I can’t trust you to not to lock me in that room again! It was horrible, you just can’t see it! Stupid magic!” She slapped her hand over her mouth, like she hadn’t meant to say it.

Stephen frowned, and then it was like a wall had broken in his mind. Horror rushed through him as he recalled his actions from the first day he met her. “Oh my god...”

Brea was staring at him with huge eyes, like she messed something up and was now watching the consequences unfold. He felt everything come crashing down, realization at what he had done making him feel sick. He had treated her without consent, kidnapped her, imprisoned her, and hadn’t repented nor asked forgiveness for it. Once again, he had broken the Hippocratic Oath, causing harm to Brea both mentally and physically. 

Just as he was about to do something, anything, a sharp pain emitted from just behind his eyes. Stephen yelped and clutched his head, the noise aggravating it further. He was now being supported by the Shifter, as opposed to the other way around. Levi was fluttering around him, obviously distressed at its partner’s pain. Carol and Hope came rushing from behind the counter. 

“What’s wrong?” Hope asked, fear lacing her voice. He felt like his head was going to explode as the pressure just kept increasing.

“I can’t tell you,” Brea responded, to quickly to be anything other than a knee jerk response under pressure.. 

“What?” Carol demanded. “Why not?” Even in his pain, Stephen felt the teen tense under the outburst.

“Because the same thing will happen to you.” 

The two women stared at her incredulously. “What are you talking about?”

Brea tilted her head with a wrench . “I need to get to Kamar-Taj. Please hand me the phone.” Her panic attack was still audible in her voice. Stephen lifted his head up as much as the extreme migraine would allow and pointed at the device. Hope snatched Brea’s phone off of the ground and handed it to her. The Shapeshifter started pressing the button with shaking fingers, cursing when she misdialed. Finally, a tinny call tone was just barely heard from the phone’s speakers.

”Charles,” she said without even waiting for the hello. “It’s all gone to shit. New Zealand levels. Code The Witch Has Arrived. How soon can you get to the temple?” The was a short pause. “All right, see you in ten minutes.” She hung up without any sort of good bye. Then she pulled out the StarkPhone Tony had given her earlier. “Friday, can you call Wong please?” 

Friday confirmed the request by causing the phone to vibrate with a ring. Wong’s voice drifted through the line. “Why are you calling me at three in the morning?”

”Ten minutes. Kamar-Taj. Charles will be there but Stephen and I need a portal.”

”Of course.” He too ended the call without preamble.

Brea crawled out of where she was still being held by Stephen. She was barely standing under her own weight, so Hope helped her straighten. “You two can come, but no one else. We don’t have the time. Wong will get them once we figure out a way to help.”

A serious air hung about the group as Hope wrapped an arm around Brea, and Levi fastened itself to Stephen’s shoulders. Carol helped it in its endeavor to pick him up, and they all made there way to where Wong had opened a portal. He whistled.

”What happened?”

Brea watched him with eyes cloudy with a feral alarm. “I had a panic attack, said some things I shouldn’t have.”

Wong nodded. “Let’s get him to the meditation room. Charles is already here, and I think I might have something.”

The next few hours were a blur to Stephen. He rembered seeing Wong and some other bald man in a wheel chair before drifting back out of consciousness. The pain in his head was overwhelming, seemingly worse than when he had his hands crushed in the accident. He saw the two over and over again, but he never registered what exactly they were doing. Finally, he began feeling more anchored and he was able to fall into a deeper sleep.

************

 

Brea was exhausted. Her meeting with Lupo and everything that had happened the last year had set her on the wall. The phone call from Lupo expressing his concern over the Witch’s stability just sent her over the edge. She ended the call quickly, stumbling back to the Compound while staving off a full blown panic attack. She’d had some small ones over the last couple months, but they were all easy to handle. This one was just a combination of all of the ones she had pushed aside, and it came back to bite her in the ass.

She had at least been hoping to get to her room, but when she saw Stephen and the smell of the Witch’s powers grew stronger, she was reminded of all of her failures once again. That had done it and sent her spiraling out of control. When she came back to herself, the first thing she noticed was _malemalemalemale_  and then she recognized his scent as the one that permeated the cloak. She figured whoever it was would help take her out. Couldn’t they see that she messed everything that she touched up? Anyone with half a brain and an ounce of mercy would put her out of her misery. She just felt worse when she became lucid enough to realize her helper was Stephen. And then he began asking her questions. She answered honestly because maybe if he knew how much of a major fuck up she was, he would finally rid her of this hell hole of a life. 

Then he inquired about something that hit just a little too close to home and she _snapped._  She revealed what was in Stephen’s head, and his mental barriers finally recognized the attack on his conscience. If Hope and Carol hadn’t gotten him to Charles and Wong when they did...

Now she was out here, in the garden. Wong had rounded up the others, and now they were all recovering with clear minds and stronger defenses. Even Daredevil had made it, although she was pretty sure Jessica had threatened him into it _before_ explaining what was going on. Brea was sitting on the bench, stuck in her five year old form after switching to it unconsciously. She guessed it was probably some part of her brain deciding that a small child was how she felt at the time. She was too exhausted to even think about trying to change back. She pondered over her thoughts a bit more, when Charles rolled up in his wheel chair. He gave her a small smile, and even though he was tired, it reached his eyes. 

“How are you doing?” he worried.

Brea considered lying to him, but _duh, telepath_. Even if he wasn’t actively reading her mind, she was pretty sure he would be able to tell. “Not good.”

He hummed. “How good is not good?”

”I asked Stephen to kill me several times not good.”

”Ouch,” he said with a wince. “Panic attack?”

”Yeah. Bad one.” She returned her attention to the grass growing between the cracks below her feet, examining an ant that was crawling over the blades.

”It wasn’t your fault, you know,” Charles drew her eyes back to him. “His subconscious was already engaging its offenses. All of theirs were. If they hadn’t been helped, the world would probably be short most of it’s Avengers within the next week.”

”I could have killed her though,” Brea argued. “The Witch. Instead I was weak. Because of my inactivity they all got mind raped by a bitch.”

The bald man shot her a look that clearly portrayed his disapproval at her language. “Showing mercy is not weakness. It proves you have a soul.”

She didn’t bother with an answer. He sighed and looked over at where a sleek jet was parked in the middle of the courtyard. “My team is probably getting restless in there.”

”You’re team’s here?” she swung around to look at him.

”We were in the area. The Brotherhood has decided to branch out. How do you think I got here so fast?”

”I figured you asked Kurt for a favor.” She liked Kurt. The blue-skinned mutant was a don’t-ask-don’t-tell person which was highly respected in her line of work. She also admired his scars, carefully carved beautiful designs that told his story.

”No, he’s back at the school right now. He teaches art.”

”Fitting.”

”Walk with me?” He held out his hand, and she considered it cautiously as she kicked her feet back and forth. Eventually, she took it and slid off of the bench. 

“What do I do now?” She blurted as they tread over the cobblestone.

To his credit, Charles understood exactly what she meant. “Go back with your pack, I presume. You could also leave if you feel uncomfortable, none of them would blame you. In fact, they were all quite... angry at their actions. I believe they want to somehow make it up to you.”

”I’m not sure I want to go,” Brea said. “Which feels wrong. I should be scared of them or something, but now I just want to protect them.”

”Feelings aren’t always logical,” Charles explained. “Sometimes one just has to follow their instincts, especially you.”

”How do you know they’ll let me stay?”

He gave her a soft smile. “Telepath, remember? Keep in mind what I’ve told you.” As they came upon the jet, the ramp lowered. A huge burly man stalked his way down, and Brea recognized his posture already.

“You have shapeshifting mutants?” She asked incredulously. 

Charles laughed gently. “Not quite. He has a partial form like you, although he cannot transform out of it. The form is also mostly human.”

The man strolled up to them at a leisurely pace, and Brea almost immediately felt defensive. He absolutely _radiated_ dominance, but she was encroaching on his territory. She didn’t feel the need to start a battle or try to take over his pack, nor did she want anything to set him off, so she adopted the same submissive stance she had shown Stephen earlier that morning. The man stopped a few paces short and stared her consideringly. She knew he was measuring what sort of threat she posed to his pack, especially the man next to her at the moment. He then arched an eyebrow and looked to Charles, who was watching their interaction with interest. 

 “Care to introduce us?” He said gruffly.

Charles shook himself out of his stupor. “Logan, this is Brea, also known as Silver Shadow. Brea, this is Logan, also known as Wolverine.”

“Hey kid,” Logan grunted. “She a mutant?”

”No, just an old friend,” the professor explained. 

Brea heard voices from inside of the temple and her head snapped up. “They’re awake.” She couldn’t help the panic lacing throughout her tone. It seemed in just one day, she lost all sense of control that she used to have over herself. It was almost as if she knew the dance moves, merely was not flexible enough to complete them.

”You should go be with them,” Charles urged. “But first, I have a request.” Both she and Logan cocked their heads at that. “I would like to send some of the X-Men to interact with the Avengers. I think it would be beneficial for you to have another set of defenses between the Witch and your pack.” He raised his hand when Brea opened her mouth to argue. “Not that you aren’t doing a very good job. It simply never hurts to have back-up, does it?”

Brea tilted her head consideringly, turning the idea around in her mind. “Okay.”

Charles smiled. “Okay. I’ll send them down on Monday, is that alright?”

”Okay,” Brea repeated herself, beginning to bounce on the balls of her feet in nervous anticipation. 

“Go be with your pack.” Charles shooed her off. She took off towards the section on Kamar-Taj where the Avengers were staying. Dashing down the corridor, she didn’t miss hearing Logan make one final remark.

”Strange kid.”

”You have no idea,” Charles replied. There was a woosh of air she assumed was the plane, and their scents faded away. 

Breathing down her trepidation, Brea approached the doors that separated her from the team. After wiping her palms on her pants she placed each hand on a door, and pushed them open.

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Why do I torture my OC and make her mentally unstable, you may ask.  
> The answer is: I don’t really know. 
> 
>  
> 
> Watched Infinity War. I was sooooo completely lost. I won’t go into the issues I had with the movie here, but check my Tumblr if you’re curious.  
> @Watermelons000


	12. Chapter 12

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> James isn’t sure what to think anymore

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I’m back! Had a little bit of a writer’s block for this fic, but I’ve got a Whole Spiel™ planned out now. School’s kicking my butt, so expect sporadic updates with no rhyme or reason

~~Bucky~~ ,  ~~Lupo~~ ,  ~~Asset~~ , James was unsettled.

All day he had been on edge, worrying about Brea. He didn’t realize quite how delusional Stevie- (no, this was no longer the Steve he knew once upon a time ago) -Rogers was until Foxy came by. When he called her relaying his uncertainty about the metal stability of the group he was with, he could hear the second guessing in her voice and immediately regretted causing her fear.

He assured her he could handle himself, he would be absolutely fine, but he knew she would still work herself down to the bone. Unfortunately, before they could get into any meaningful conversation, James heard Rogers approaching with Yelena.

_Time won’t change a man_ , he had said, remembering their code.

Foxy’s small smile was audible over the phone.  _But the wild will._ _We are the wildest ones._

_We’re just the ones that you know,_ he replied, reminding her to remain vigilant.

_I will see you soon,_ Foxy assured him before they hung up. 

That had been fifteen minutes ago. Now he was sitting in a common room of the King of Wakanda’s palace, watching a news caster talk about all of the charity work the New Avengers were doing. Clint was grumbling, something about trying to undermine the original Avengers, when a flash of red caught James’ attention. 

He turned just in time to see the Witch’s eyes return to their usual brown, with a satisfied look in her eye. He immediately recognized it. It was the look he always saw when a victim of her mind rape recognized the attack. The look of a murderer settling back to watch their prey struggle. And her methods always ended in death, unless the other person was enhanced in some way. 

James shivered and hoped that the one who realized her magic wasn’t one of the Avengers, or an innocent for that matter. He wanted to bring the problem to the group’s attention, but the Witch had them all wrapped around her pinky finger. He couldn’t blow his cover, so he simply fell back into his Winter Soldier training and observed.

He noticed her face began slowly fading into more and more malice throughout the next few hours until she looked absolutely  _livid._ Suddenly, she threw back her head and let out a blood-curdling screech.

Everyone in the room jumped up to attention.

”Wanda, are you okay?” Rogers asked, practically shouting.

She calmed her voice but her eyes were flaming with volcanic rage.

”They-they,” she stuttered, not able to get the words out beyond her own anger.

”What?” Rogers implored.

”Hey, hey,” Wilson goaded. “Let’s all take a deep breath in, and let it out. C’mon.”

The Witch visibly reigned in her emotions, which was not a moment too soon because her magic was beginning to react to them.

”That’s good,” praised Wilson. “Now what is the problem?”

”They figured it out! They got rid of it!” Witchey hissed. 

‘Romanov’ frowned. “They got rid of what?”

”My powers!” She was obviously seething. “A bit ago I noticed that one of the Starks ‘friends’ began fighting my powers. Don’t worry,” she waved a hand when it seemed several of them were going to interrupt. “He wouldn’t have been able to overcome them. But then, one by one, all of the people I influenced started dropping out of my senses. Now I can’t even feel one of them, which means they somehow got rid of them!”

”I thought that wasn’t possible,” Rogers pointed out, getting a furrow in his brow.

”I don’t know!” The Witch wailed. “They shouldn’t have been able to do that!”

James felt a small wave of satisfaction rush through him. _Good job little sister._

“We have to go back and do it again,” Rogers immediately decided. 

Just like clock work, Romanov held up a perfectly manicured hand. “Hold on. We barely got in last time. Tony has definitely upped his security if he knows about the magic.”

”And if they know about it, wouldn’t they be able to detect it again?” Wilson added with a grimace. James noticed a flicker of something akin to rebellion cross his features and filed it away for future reference. That could be useful.

”I say we need to just march over there and make Stark see some sense,” Barton fumed.

”I don’t think we actually need to,” Romanov mused. “Hear me out. We know that Tony has already taken in Silver, right? Silver has something similar to Barnes in that she doesn’t really age, isn’t that right Bucky?”

The manipulation tactic was so easy to identify, James almost sighed. “Yes.”

”And she was maybe what, fifteen or sixteen?”

James internally rolled his eyes, but in the others eyes seemed to be struggling to remember his memories. “I, I think so.”

”Wait a minute, hold up,” Wilson demanded. “This is a _kid_?” Both Rogers and Barton appeared inclined to agree with him.

”It’s HYDRA,” Romanov reminded them dryly. “They don’t really have morals.”

”And your magic was pretty much just an obsession spell,” Wilson barreled on. “Oh my god, you found out that a traumatized, brain washed, tortured child was still alive and instead of think ‘oh, we should go help her’ you break into the home of several dangerous individuals with questionable mental stability and cause them to go to any end of the earth to get their hands on her? And from what I saw on the news, they kidnap and probably imprison her. And now, because you have her previous co-worker, no offense Barnes, who at the very least brings up bad memories, you think that she will be on our side? Especially since, from what you said, she’s seen you both train, and I can almost guarantee you scare the absolute shit out of her. Wanda, you willingly joined for fuck’s sake! This is what we’ve fallen to? The Avengers everyone, we’ll mind rape our allies and exploit the fears of children.” 

Amidst everyone’s shock, he slowly clapped. “I can’t deal with this anymore. Barnes, man, you’re on your own. I’m out.” Wilson left in a cloud of fury and disbelief.

Rogers shook himself and made a move to go after him. James placed a hand on his shoulder. 

“Don’t, just don’t.”

Romanov cleared her throat. “Don’t worry about him, Steve, he’ll come around. He was just overreacting and blew the situation completely out of proportion. What we’re doing is for the betterment of the world. Tony can’t be trusted.”

Rogers untensed at her words. “You’re right.” He squared his shoulders. “So what’s the rest of your plan?”

Romanov nodded at James. “Like he said, Silver’s around fifteen or sixteen. She has to had made friends with Stark’s kids-“

Everyone ignored Barton’s outrage of  “They let a mass murderer _care_ for children, but I can’t even _see_ mine?”

“-and they have that YouTube channel. There is a three month grace period between when they film the videos and when they are posted. I’d say give it about two and a half months, and we can start checking on her. That way we’ll be able to tell when the perfect time to approach her is.”

Rogers didn’t even take the time to contemplate the idea. “I don’t like it. Sam’s right. She might be scared of us, and we need to fix that immediately before Tony starts playing on that fear. We all know how crafty he can be. We need to show her that we’re not a threat.”

”In case you didn’t notice, we kind of failed last time we tried to talk to her,” Clint proclaimed sarcastically. 

“That’s because we didn’t hit the base of operations,” Wanda countered. “We were on one of her many territories that are unfamiliar to us. She knows the turf, she could have even been there without us knowing. We need to get to her where we both know the layout, and where she is almost guaranteed to be staying.”

”How about this. I’ll  try to hack Friday through the YouTube channel, and watch any videos they have. If there’s nothing in it that would interfere with our plans, we can go to Russia, okay?” Romanov said placatingly. 

“Why Russia?” Barton asked, seemingly having calmed down.

”The Red Room,” Romanov shrugged. “I know it like the back of my hand, and Wanda and Bucky have both been there several times as well.”

”But there’s no guarantee she’ll be there,” Rogers said. James was impressed that he was able to make that connection, especially with his apparent lack of common sense.

”That’s not too difficult to fix, if she’s already made attachments with the Avengers, we kidnap one, if not, we use Barnes as bait. It’s a win-win.” It took an embarrassing amount of the Winter Soldier training to not snarl at the so-called spy.

Rogers seemed like he was already gearing up to argue, but James interrupted before he could get started. “Sounds good.” If they weren’t going to give up, this was the safest method to allow them contact with Foxy. He could call ahead and warn her, and he knew her better than he knew himself. As much as he liked to poke fun at Romanov’s ego, her abilities had still come from some of the top trainers in the world, himself notwithstanding. Too bad for her though, Foxy had been on the run for centuries before HYDRA got lucky. The Black Widow may be the best of the best, avoiding cameras and manhunts in her sleep, but Silver Shadow was the phantom of a ghost story for a reason.

“Bucky,” Rogers said patronizingly.

”No, Stevie.” He felt no shame in dropping the old childhood nickname and adopting a bit of a Brooklyn accent. “Silver’s pr’lly terrified ‘n everything. We shoulda never sent’er in. We need’ta make sure she’s okay.”

_Captain America strategical genius my ass,_ Winter thought. James shoved him back into his box, even though he agreed wholeheartedly as Rogers deflated instantly.

”You’re right. What can you tell us about Silver?”

 “To be honest, not much, punk. Can’t remember much about her, ‘cept she sometimes accompanied me on missions. Always had different orders, though, so we never really stuck together. Was a lil shit, that one as well.” Perfect. Tell enough of the truth, and throw in a personal fact and bingo. Foolproof alibi. James resolutely ignored the memories trying to escape the snug little cage he forced them into. He remembered riding a motorcycle, a lithe black creature with silver eyes easily keeping pace. He remembered the flash of a metal blade in his hands,  the pearly glint of fangs at his side, and the way blood looked eerily beautiful splattered against white snow, a charcoal pelt, and harsh metal plates. He recalled the musty scent of the safe house, when a mass of soft darkness curled up against him, alert as they both waited for extraction.

James slammed his mental barriers back up. He was surrounded by enemies, and couldn’t afford to show any involuntary weakness. Luckily, Barton distracted him.

”So when do we plan on heading out?”

Romanov smirked. “Within the next week. It shouldn’t take me too long to hack into Friday and get the information we need. Three days at most.”

”What about Sam?” Rogers asked. 

“What about him? What he doesn’t know won’t hurt him. He’ll be fine here.” Wanda appeared to already be over her anger, but James could see the concealed rage and madness rolling around behind her eyes.

”If you’re sure,” Steve sounded relieved. 

After exchanging a few more pleasantries, James left for his own quarters. Not for the first time, he wished for the simplicity of being HYDRA’s puppet, if only so he didn’t have to deal with all of his emotions running rampant. That thought was quickly trumped by his ultimate relief. He and Foxy were _free,_ and if all else failed they could put their skills to use and disappear, preferably forever. With that in mind, he went to bed, setting up contingency plans late into the night.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ooh, what’s that small thing with Winter? And what’s up with Sam? 
> 
>  
> 
> The small interaction between Bucky and Brea are lyrics from Zayde Wølf’s song ‘Wildest Ones’ which I feel fits their personalities/situations quite well.


	13. Chapter 13

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The New Avengers discover just what happened to them

Every head snapped up to greet her as Brea stepped into the room. The pack was spread out over few hastily made beds and couches. Her form just made her feel even more small and she shifted her weight from foot to foot. Everyone was awake. Tired, but awake, a feat she was amazed by. The magic would have taken a lot of energy. She guessed when one fought random monsters for a living, one had really good stamina.

Charles’ voice drifted back to her, and she decided to take the plunge. She opened her mouth to break the silence when Tony beat her to it.

”You don’t have to be here if you don’t want to,” he exclaimed from his spot on a bed next to Peter, Rhodey, and Harley. At several severe looks, he hurried to add, “We were creepy stalker asses and you shouldn’t have to put up with us.”

”That is...” Brea muttered. She didn’t have the English vocabulary to finish her sentence, but several voices pitched in.

”Blunt?” Rhodey offered.

”Unexpected?” Peter added.

”Inappropriate?” Pepper said with a glare at Tony from across the room.

”Brutal?” Harley asked.

”Offensive?” Stephen finished, drawing her attention to his spot on a cot. He didn’t seem tired, and she could smell magic practically swirling throughout him.

”I think all of those?” Brea said, although it was more of a question. “I am here of my own free will.”

”Why?” Jessica inquired in a gruff voice. She seemed the most affected by the whole ordeal. She was leaning against a wall, arms tightly crossed against her chest. Her whole posture screamed ‘leave me alone’.

”I don’t know,” the Shifter answered truthfully. “Too explain? See what you’re like when not under a spell? Get some closure?”

“Why don’t we start with the first one,” Laura suggested from where she was sitting on a sofa. Cooper and Lila were curled up on either side of her, and Nathaniel was in her lap. 

“Did Wong tell you anything?” Brea asked.

”Yes, but we want to hear it from you,” Carol said cordially. 

“I can tell you what I do know,” she said with a grimace. “Although it won’t make much sense.” She looked at Scott. “Correct me if I’m wrong. The Rogues want to be pardoned.”

The man nodded. “Sounds about right. They think the world needs them, that the public will welcome them back with open arms and Stark’s just being difficult about it.”

”Okay. Now, to start from the beginning you must know that the Witch and I have a telepathic bond.”

”What?” Tony cried out. “Why?”

Brea’s face darkened. “It was not consensual, I will divulge that much. Let’s just say HYDRA had me build up an immunity to her mind control and a resistance to her telekinesis. Repeated exposure to her powers causes a bond, through which she can tell if I am alive or not.” The room’s atmosphere was dampened by the hidden meaning behind her words.

”That is all, however, correct?” Stephen checked, leaning forward. “She can’t do anything else?”

”Yes, that is it. From what I can glean, they thought that if they placed an obsession spell over you, you would eventually find me and take me in.”

”They were right in thinking that,” Pepper pointed out. “We did.”

”But,” Brea said. “They had two flaws in their plan.”

”And that is..?” Hope pressed.

“Me. They thought that I would play double agent for them, and convince Tony to get them pardons and welcome them back to the US with open arms. That is the second flaw. After all they did to Tony, they expected that he would be happy to let them back into his life.”

The man Brea now knew as Happy whistled. “Those are some delusional people.”

”And delusional people are dangerous,” Peter piped up. 

“Exactly,” Brea agreed.

”I still don’t understand,” Vision said. “Why would they believe that you would willingly work with them?” Brea noticed Stephen sit forward. 

“They had Lupo,” he stated. “That’s why what happened last night happened. You were scared for him.”

She wrung her hands, guilt bubbling up from the reminder of the previous night.“Yeah.”

“You lost me,” Rhodey said. “Who is Lupo?”

Brea wondered if she should answer. If anything went wrong, this was information they could use against her. Her trust issues shouldn’t allow her to tell them anything. Unfortunately, her problems never followed the rules. In for a penny, in for a pound, and for some reason her instincts decided to choose that moment to overrule her logic.

”Lupo was my partner in HYDRA. He is now with the Rogues, making sure they don’t do anything rash before we take them down.” She wasn’t required to tell the team the full story at the moment. She noticed Scott giving her a look, and she subtly shook her head no. Not right now.

“So, so let me get this straight,” Tony said. “Rogers and his team thought that I would take you in, you would play spy for them, I would somehow be convinced to get them relieved of their crimes, and then everything would go back the way it was fine and dandy?”

”Yes.”

 _“Oddio,”_ he murmured, running his hands through his hair. _“Come?”_

Brea tilted her head. _“Non lo so. È stupido. Sono idioti.”_

Tony laughed and sat up. “What now?”

”You go home. The way Maximoff’s power works, she already knows you guys are free. The Rogues are most likely going to come and either recast the spell or force you some other way. Charles Xavier, the one who just helped you is a mutant, although you probably already knew that. He’s going to send down some of the X-Men as a last line of defense.”

Silence, then: “I’m still confused. What exactly did she do to us?” 

The Shifter turned to Harley. “In short, Witchey somehow broke into the Compound and placed a bit of magic in your heads. HYDRA called it an obsession spell, kind of self-explanatory. It was deep enough that you wouldn’t be able to tell it apart from your emotions, and strong enough to alter your way of thinking. It’s virtually undetectable. I was going to meet with Wong and Charles today to discuss what could be done, when I accidentally told Stephen about it.” An ocean of shame swamped her. Stephen obviously noticed, and he waved it off. 

“No harm done,” he said. “I was about to discover it for myself anyway.”

Brea recognized the deflection for what it was, and knew that if they allowed her to stay, she would have a serious conversation coming up. “His mind finally knew what it was searching for, and tried to rid itself of the influence. Maximoff’s powers defended themselves in turn. Think of it as a virus. White blood cells fight the pathogen, you get tired and a fever. This was worse than that, because if we didn’t get here when we did the strain could have killed him.”

”Well shit,” Tony said. Then his eyes widened with curiousity. “Time out, how come Witch Doctor over here was able to be put under Wanda’s control when he’s the Sorcerer Supreme?”

”I was wondering that too,” Jessica inserted. “I’m immune to mind control.”

”It’s a long story, but basically she has two outlets of power, a mutation and whatever she got from the mind stone experiments. They are separate things, but work together. Each one is weak enough on its own to avoid any notice. Due to this fact, Stephen and Jessica may have felt something was off more than the rest of you, but still wouldn’t have been able to do anything about it.”

”Fuck,” Jess said with emphasis. “How’d you figure it out?”

”Wong thought something was off, and he took those scans a while back. I am trained to look out for the Witch’s signature, I recognized it and started detecting it mixed in with your scents.” Brea shivered minutely. “I will never forget her stench.”

“So, to sum up, the Rogues wanted to come back, and in order to do so place an obsession spell over the residents of the Compound. Stephen and I find you, kidnap you, sorry for that by the way, and make the most pathetic attempt to gain your trust. Wong, who wasn’t at there when Witchey came by pure chance, noticed that we were acting creepy and weird, so he looks for foreign magic. You find it, set up a meeting between Professor X and Wong even though you didn’t have to, and based on the evidence go all the way back to Italy where you know a mafia subgroup is hunting you just to meet up with Lupo. Lupo stays behind to keep Rogers and co. under control, but something happens and he calls you. And you, who, no offense, is still a kid, have a very reasonable breakdown which was probably a long time coming. During said breakdown you accidentally release some information that you shouldn’t have, and instead of letting nature take its course, you call up Wong and the Professor and end up saving Stephen’s life.” Tony took a deep breath and slowly exhaled. “Did I get everything?”

Brea’s response was interrupted by Stephen’s. “If you hadn’t come into the kitchen when you did, I probably would have died anyway.” Brea’s mouth snapped shut, and instinctively she tilted her head. “Wong said my magic was close to figuring it out, it would have discovered the spell only a few hours later.”

”But I sped up the process,” she protested weakly. 

“Yes, you did, and in doing so prevented me from a very untimely death.” She met his gaze, very much recognizing that he was the Leader of the group right now. After a tense moment of her instincts squabbling inside her, she glanced away. The sorcerer frowned, and she realized that he knew what she was doing. Luckily, he was polite enough not to point it out.

“I think,” Rhodes said, watching the interaction with curious interest, but with understanding. “That we should probably head back. Richards is watching New York for us.”

There was a collective groan around the room. 

“Why?” Harley asked. “That man creates the majority of our problems.”

”Because he was available,” Carol reprimanded sternly, but didn’t contradict the earlier statement, Brea noticed.

“The X-Men were watching him,” Tony said, and his eyes lost focus and flared into a bright orange. “Nothing’s happened so far, but they left about twenty minutes ago to pick up Xavier.”

”That means we have about five minutes,” Kamala said. 

Stephen swing his feet off the edge of the bed. “Alright. I’ll portal us all back, I got to get rid of this magic somehow.”

Brea noticed his hands were trembling worse than the last few times she saw them. Pepper apparently noticed as well. She squinted at him. He met her eyes, pupils slightly dilated. 

“Are you high?” She demanded.

The sorcerer had guts, Brea had to grant him that. “Not quite, I just received a little more magic than I probably should have from Wong. It’s fine.” He made to open a portal, when the entire wall he was facing vanished. In its place now stood a gateway to what she figured was another dimension. “Maybe not,” he amended. Levi, who had been fairly well behaved during the conversation, smacked him upside the head.

The door behind Brea burst open, and Wong rushed in. He stopped suddenly and gave the missing wall a very unimpressed look. Turning to Stephen he said, “I knew I gave you too much.”

Stephen shrugged, unrepentant. Wong cast a rune, and the wall reappeared. He looked around the room for a moment, finally ending up on Brea. She promptly understood what he was going to ask, and waved her hand. “Only if it’s okay with him.”

Wong turned to Stephen and held out his hand. The doctor placed a hand to his chest in mock betrayal, but conjured a ball of glowing golden energy anyway. He lobbed the ball at the librarian, who deftly caught it. 

Brea cupped her hands and he dumped the magic into her palms. She studied it for a moment, then shifted it to her left hand. She circled her right hand around the ball, causing it to spiral up slowly and change color.  When she had finished adapting the magic to be compatible with her own, she pressed her palms together, squashing the silver mist in between them and allowing it to seep into her skin. 

The effect was almost instantaneous. She felt power run up her arms, into her head and slide down her spine. With immense satisfaction, she curled her fingers and unsheathed her claws. Noticing that whatever block she had placed on her ablilities was lifted, she shifted to dispel a little energy, from a snowy leopard, to a silver fox, finally falling into a blue Merle Australian Shepherd.

She looked at Stephen, eyes wide and probably a little drug induced too. “That was a lot of energy.”

He chose not to comment, instead smirking. Rasing his hands, a golden portal erupted in front of him showing the Compound living room on the other side. Dutifully, the New Avengers began filing through.

Finally, Tony, Stephen, and Brea were the only ones left. She morphed into her human form again.

“Are you not coming?” Tony asked, gesturing at the living room where various groups were breaking off to go to their rooms.

Brea hesitated. “Are you sure?”

”Positive. We don’t just invite anyone to live with us, obsession spell or no,” he said with a scoff. His voice softened. “I realize that we have been really crappy to you, like really fucking shitty, and for that I’m really sorry. Truly. If you want to leave, that’s your choice, but you will always be welcome here.”

Brea was speechless. “I should be apologizing to you! Not the other way around.”

”Look kid, I suck at emotions.” They both ignored Stephen’s snort of ‘no really, we never noticed.’ “How about this. Let’s start over.” He stuck out his hand. “Hi, I’m Tony Stark, genius billionaire playboy philanthropist, and Iron Man. This is my boyfriend Doctor Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme. We’re the New Avengers. Do you want to join?” 

Smiling, Brea shook it. “Hi, I’m Brea “Silver” Shadow, ex-HYDRA assassin and Shapeshifter. Nice to meet you. And I would love to.”

 


	14. Chapter 14

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> A little bit of Brea’s past

Brea didn’t realize how tired she was until she stepped back through the portal. Stephen and Tony bade her a goodnight, even though it was early-afternoon, and stumbled back to their room. Deciding to do the same, she made her way down the leading towards her own bedroom.

She shut the door behind her and let out a breath of air, looking around.The room looked exactly the same as when she had been given it, the only exception being the slightly distorted covers of the bed. She had never slept under the sheets, however, so it could still pass as tidy. She debated on collapsing on the mattress and passing out, but she knew it would be too soft.

Brea allowed her instincts to lead her, which caused her to end up back into her Saltumbra form. The more animal part of her zeroed in on a patch of sunlight on the carpet, streaming in through the open window. Her HYDRA training agreed with the spot, complimenting the easy surveillance of the room it would have while still leaving plenty of accessible escape routes.

Logically, she knew that she was safe, and none of the New Avengers would hurt her willingly, but she didn’t trust Lupo’s targets. With those thoughts, she drifted off serenely. Until the memories started.

_“Pet! Up and at ‘em!” A black baton dragged across the bars of the cage. “Prepare for hunt, training, and then a mission. Asset will be thawed in ten minutes!”_

_She stood on shaky legs, fragments of failed attempts of programming and survival instincts urging her to comply._

_“Form: Shadow for hunt, Silver for training, Shadow and Blue for mission. Mission parameters: Assist Asset in his orders. Restrictions: Do not be seen. Do not shift into any other forms except the the ones I’ve just given you unless preapproved. You will take the allotted time and not break off of mission area. Understood?”_

_The Pet followed the orders as they were given, morphing into the large Saltumbra. Her eyes tracked the handler, eyes cold and unfeeling, but hatred boiling deep in her gut. Handler stepped back, waving forward a goon dressed in a padded suit, not unlike those used when training police dogs except for the entire body. He unlocked the cage and slipped the noose over her neck, tightening it painfully. She remained docile, even as he dragged her out. He handed the end of the pole to another goon, and slipped a muzzle over her face. Finally reassured she was secure, Handler lowered his gun._

_He patted his leg. “C’mon Pet. Asset should be ready for you by the time we get there.” They never treated her as anything other than a wild animal. Why should they?_

_The dream skipped ahead as they marched through the maze of halls, into the deepest bowels of the base._

_“Asset! Pet!” A new handler snapped at where the Asset and Pet were sprawled out on the floor of their shared cell.“Report!”_

_Foxy growled softly, but slowly rolled over and pulled herself off of the ground. She didn’t go far though, because as soon as Lupo was on his feet, she attached herself to his side._

_With the motion of habit, Lupo gripped the loop of the tactical vest on her back with his metal hand. The Saltumbra was tall enough to reach above his waist, so the position wasn’t too awkward._

_The new handler stepped into the room cautiously, gun drawn. He clicked his tongue at them, jerking his head at the doorway. “Go get suited up. Hunt should include two deer, five hares, and four quail. Any excess will result in reward.”_

_The time sped by again, leaving her with the feeling of blood matted fur and the scent of fearful prey. It stopped on a memory of one of the new recruits in the handler program._

_“You are actually just an oversized dog, aren’t you?” He sneered down at where Foxy was waiting at the door for Lupo to return. “Stupid bitch.I don’t understand why we don’t just breed you, you’re obviously dumb as a brick. Can you imagine the pups we would get if we mixed a shapeshifter and super soldier together?”_

_Foxy didn’t care about insults against herself, but Lupo was off-limits. She growled deeply at the man in warning. He scoffed._

_“What, little bitch doesn’t want puppies? Well too bad. As soon as I get promoted to head of the program, that’s all you’ll be doing. Maybe if you’re nice, we’ll throw some lube into the room from time to time. You’d like that wouldn’t you?”_

_Luckily, Lupo had returned back to base. She waited until Handler opened the door to admit him entrance, and then struck. There was a frenzy of motion as the guards around them took notice, but not one of them tried to stop her. She took her place to Lupo’s side, mouth filled with copper, and muzzle and paws covered in red._

_The head guard casually strolled over to them to survey the damage._

_“Ma’am?” One of her underlings asked._

_She waved her hand. “Clean up the body. He brought it upon himself.”_

_“Isn’t the Pet supposed to be under control?” Another man seemed worried._

_“The Pet is under control, she was following her orders to protect the Asset. This idiot apparently didn’t have the capacity to follow simple instructions, so he payed his due.”_

_The scene suddenly changed around her once more, skipping through Red Room trainings that ended in only one contestant named remaining. Her name was Yelena._

_The flashes of images finally ceased in the middle of a mission. It was in a heavily populated American city, but that just made the target easier to track. No one questioned a college student walking his dog._

_Lupo, dressed in a worn coat and jeans with gloves covering his hands and Foxy, in the Husky form Blue, stopped at a cafe across from their target’s work, waiting for the security shift to change. Right on time, a guard walked out with a duffel bag. Lupo released Foxy’s lead and she took off, darting around pedestrians._

_He waited two seconds, and raced after her, shouting with a slight Californian accent. “Blue, come back here! Blue!”_

_She ignored him, as according to plan, and pounced on the guard and knocking him over. Lupo caught up, pretending to breathe hard._

_“I’m so sorry, sir. She must have seen a cat or something, She just got aw-“_

_“It’s really no problem,” the man replied, standing up. He picked up the end of her leash and handed it back to Lupo, who traded it for the man’s duffel._

_“Ah, thank you so much. I’m still so sorry.”_

_“Don’t worry about it.” The man smiled and shouldered his bag. “No harm done. Have a nice day.”_

_“You too,” Lupo said, already waving him off. They strode down the street a few blocks, pulling into an alleyway and began setting up camp behind a dumpster. Lupo held out his hand, and Foxy placed the wallet she swiped from the man in his palm. He tucked into his backpack alongside the guard’s uniform from his duffel. Aware that the mission leaders were watching, he patted her head. “Good girl.”_

_She puffed out her chest in pride, just a little. Lupo sat down in the cover the dumpster and the end of the alley created and settled in to wait for darkness to fall. She curled up at his side, front paws and head in his lap, ever watchful and patient. Lupo reached down and began stroking her ears with his disguised metal hand._

_The dream jumped to around early evening on the same mission, when a gang of teenagers staggered into the alleyway, laughing and pushing each other. Foxy tensed, but Lupo didn’t even seem to care._

_“What’ve we got here?” The leader of the group asked as soon as he laid eyes on them._

_“Back off,” Lupo warned them gruffly._

_“No, I don’t think I will,” the guy said, and Foxy really gave them a good look. They appeared to be between the ages of 17 and 19 and she could already count exactly how many weapons there were between them._

_She began licking her paws, twice on each pad, alerting Lupo that they had two guns. Then she yawned for a total of six seconds, signifying the six blades they possessed. Lupo patted her side in recognition, standing up._

_“Go home, kid,” he said._

_“Hand over your cash and we will,” the leader sneered, pulling out a pocket knife._

_“C’mon kid, leave us alone, we ain’t done nothing to you.” Foxy could hear the hidden plea in Lupo’s message. ‘We don’t want to kill you’._

_“Hand it over,” another teen said. “And we’ll leave you alone.”_

_Foxy stood up and began snarling, hoping to scare them off. The effort was in vain. She heard the crackle of the com in Lupo’s ear as the handler spoke._

_“Kill them. No witnesses.”_

_Any emotion on Lupo’s face was wiped away. Then he struck. Muffled screams swirled around Brea as her vision ran white. They began warping into a howl of anguish, and she felt phantom electricity coursing through her veins. There was nothing else, just a vicious cycle of pain._

_Screaming._

_Howling._

_Crackling._

_Shocking._

_Thumping._

_Snapping_.

Brea jerked back to herself. She opened her eyes to the bright sunlight of late afternoon streaming through the window. She noticed she was panting, but her heart rate remained slow. Her body temperature was a little above average, giving the panting an explanation.

Trying to push the dreams out of her mind, she rose to her feet. The urge to check on her new pack members bubbled up greedily, so she crept out of the room.

She found them in the kitchen and common room, at least, some of them.

“Where are the others?” she asked.

Tony jumped at where he was leaning on the breakfast bar next to Stephen.

“Jesus Christ, kid, I have a heart condition,” he said, placing a hand to his chest in mock surprise. Nevertheless, he was smiling.

“You fight in a metal suit like three times a week,” she deadpanned. Then she blinked, a little bewildered at herself. To his credit, Tony either didn’t notice or didn’t mention it.

“I swear, Fri, can you believe this? What has gotten into kids these days?”

“I have absolutely no idea boss, especially with role models as yourself,” the wall-voice, AI, whatever, said.

The billionaire gasped. “Betrayed by my own child. How can I live like this?”

“I’m sure you’ll manage,” Friday retorted. “Besides, I’m pretty sure Brea is older than you.”

“Only chronologically,” Brea responded offhandedly, already taking in the state of the others in the room. Stephen looked better, watching their interaction with amusement. Carol was curled into Rhodes on the loveseat, the two carrying on a quiet conversation. Pepper was on the couch, feet tucked under her, gently tapping on a tablet. Her other hand was running through Hope’s hair, who had her head resting on Pepper’s thigh, also working on a tablet. Laura had a sleeping Nathaniel on her chest while she read a book, her legs tangled with Hope’s. May was on Pepper’s other side, head phones in and watching something on her phone in front of her. Brea assumed the kids were still asleep in their rooms.

Apparently catching her surveillance or remembering her previous question, Stephen cleared his throat.

“Wong is guarding the sanctum. Lang was called in by Pym a few hours ago, and Jessica and Matt have gone back to their own homes.”

Brea nodded in understanding. Just then, Kamala stumbled into the kitchen.

“Coffee,” she groaned, and made her way to the coffee maker. She took a mug from the drying rack next to the sink and shoved it under the spout. As the machine started, Peter bounded into the room, all sunshine and rainbows.

“Good afternoon,” he chirped, smiling.

Kamala glared at him. “How are you even real?”

He shrugged and jumped up, maneuvering himself to sit cross-legged on the ceiling. Then he seemed to notice the others in the room.

“Doctor Dad, Money Dad,” he tilted his chin at each of them, mock serious.

Brea couldn’t help but grin at the complicated look that settled on Tony’s face. He couldn’t seem to decide if he was offended by or in agreement with the nickname.

“Where’s your evil twin?” He asked instead.

Once again, Peter shrugged. It looked a lot more weird upside down. “I think he’s still asleep. Cooper and Lila too.” He turned his attention to Brea, and she recalled the footage she had seen of Spider-Man on TV. Wall-crawling was apparently not only the feat of a suit. The same must be for the super strength. She was lucky she hadn’t met him while with HYDRA, especially with what he had that she theorized was precognition. “Are we keeping her? Permanently this time?”

Kamala had in the mean time received her caffeine and apparently decided the conversation worth joining. “Yeah can we keep her?”

“We promise to remember to feed and water her,” said a young voice at their backs. They all turned around to see Lila standing in the doorway to the kitchen, rubbing sleep out of her eyes. Harley and Cooper were strolling down the hall behind her.

“I am not a dog,” Brea reminded them, glad that they felt comfortable to be making such jokes around her and in turn she was perfectly fine accepting them. She received several looks at that, and grinned unrepentantly.

“Yes, as long as she wants, Brea can stay,” Stephen said, rolling his eyes.

“What are we doing this weekend?” Cooper asked, apropos of nothing. They all blinked at him.

“Peter, Kam, and I have a plan,” Harley announced, after a moment of regaining his composure. He exchanged a loaded glance with the two aforementioned teens. “Hold on though, I wanna tell everyone at the same time. Please go have a seat.” He gestured to the living room.

Once they were all seated, Harley cleared his throat. “So we were thinking-“

“-that we could try to relate with the general public more-“ Kamala continued.

“-and we decided we, the Avengers, should recreate vines! We can put them on our social media!” Peter finished with flourish. The three looked at the small assembly before them with suspense.

“Heck yeah,” Cooper said. “I’ve been waiting for this moment my entire life.”

“Wait,” Laura said, raising a hand. “Vines? You mean those short seven second videos that make no sense?”

“Those exact videos,” Kamala agreed. “What do you say?”

The adults all seemed to have a silent conversation with their eyes.

“It’s good PR,” Pepper began.

“It wouldn’t hurt anything,” Hope added thoughtfully.

“I don’t see no reason why not,” Laura accepted. “As long as Tony agrees.”

All eyes turned to the billionaire, who puffed up a little at the attention.

“I say let’s do it! Fire up the cameras, Fri. We’ve got some PR work to do!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> You may have noticed, I added this work to a series. There is a reason for this, as I am going to start posting anything that has to do with the kid’s social media as its own fic. I don’t want people to have to read the entirety of this work in order to get their filling of crack, just as I’m sure those same people don’t want to have to weed through my writing practice in order to reach the fun parts :b
> 
> TL;DR Make sure you bookmark the series, as the Avenger’s social media will have its own fics.

**Author's Note:**

> Hit me up on Tumblr @Watermelons000


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